An Author's Nightmare 2: Going Underground 5AE
by Ryan Perreault
Summary: An Author's Nightmare 2: Going Underground 5th Anniversary Edition... Five years ago, I wrote this fanfic about me going into the SU world... it was hailed as the worst... now, five years later, I rewrote it, hoping it will revieve better reviews.  Enjoy!
1. Insurrection

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

In 2002, a young teenager named Ryan Perreault wrote a story entitled "An Author's Nightmare 2: Going Underground," following as a sequel to a story before that of the same name. This story is about the author himself, Ryan Perreault, going into the cartoon world of 'Sonic Underground.' At the time, it was criticized due to its Mary-Sue ethics and over-used violence. It was hailed as the worst of the 'Author's Nightmare' series.

Five years later, Ryan Perreault grew up to be a young legal adult and learned more about his environment. Looking back at his story, he realized all the criticized comments were true. To fix that problem, he decided to re-write the whole story in a version that toned-down the Mary-Sue elements and made it more suitable for all readers. He would not know if it works, but at leased he is giving it a try.

However, the real Ryan Perreault went through some personal changes since the story was written. His dog, Roxy, passed away and he discharged from the Civil Air Patrol with the rank of Technical Sergeant. To make up for those elements, Ryan changed his personality a bit to be older than his true age. At the time of this story-rewrite, he is 21 years old. In this new version of the story, he will be 24 years old in the cartoon world and 21 in his flashbacks. He will keep Roxy in the story as a sign of remembrance.

There is another difference in this story. The occasional flashbacks Ryan had in the original story will be removed and replaced with a second story. This story will take place in two different times. In the present such as when Ryan is in the cartoon world, it will take place when Ryan is 24 years old. Every once in a while, the timeline will shift by going back a few years to the experiences and another fictional story when Ryan was 20. So, you will get two different stories this time.

So, here it is. The fifth anniversary edition of "An Author's Nightmare 2: Going Underground" written by the original author, Ryan Perreault. For those of you who do not know, I am Ryan Perreault. I apologize for writing a crappy story five years ago, but I hope this newer version will be more enjoyable. The story plots and major points will remain the same, but details will change and make more sense. I hope you guys enjoy this newer version of my story. That is all.

Ryan Perreault's

**AN AUTHOR'S NIGHTMARE 2: GOING UNDERGROUND**

**5TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION**

**CHAPTER 1: ****Insurrection**

**1**

It was a late summer night in the town of Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. Within the suburban neighborhood lived a young 24-year-old man. This young man sat in his living room watching the plasma television set attached to the wall. He is a pale-skinned red-headed Caucasian male, five foot ten inches, with his puffy red hair grown down to the back of his neck and shoulders. His attire consists of American Army camouflaged combat pants bearing the new ACU Digital pattern made to distort eyes, not blend in with the background. The bottoms of his pants are tucked into two khaki tan combat boots. His black T-shirt is tucked into his pants and clipped to the side of his pants strap is a clip-on sidearm holster. Within the holster is a Heckler and Koch USP .45 Standard pistol. Not as powerful as the Tactical version but more accurate than the Compact version. This young man, ever since getting his gun, told himself he would always feel safer with it on him. Luckily, in his line of duty (that only a small select few know about) he is allowed to carry it out into the public without being questioned by a police officer. However, he is on a long vacation after coming home from his horrendous months of hard work he went through, but he loves his job.

This young man is named Ryan Michael Perreault. He is currently watching one of his favorite cartoons right now, "Sonic Underground." That is right; Ryan is a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan. Although his favorite universe is the modern SEGA Sonic, with Shadow and Rouge, tonight was a Sonic Underground night for him. His parents have gone off to Washington to see their favorite music artist, Dave Matthews, on tour. His little sister, whom he calls a mean and bossy crab, was away with her boyfriend in Connecticut. Ryan remained in the house all to himself, just him and his little Shih Tzu pet named Roxy.

Ryan sat there, enjoying being home alone. Years ago, he would be afraid to be home alone on dark and scary nights. But with his current capabilities, people do not scare him anymore. The only thing that scares him is being bitten by a venomous or rabid animal, but since he is indoors he does not have to worry about that.

Currently, Ryan is watching his favorite Sonic Underground episode, "Six is a Crowd." He always found that episode hilarious with 2 Sonic's, 2 Sonia's, 2 Manic's, and a good Robotnik. Unfortunately, the episode finally came to an end as Queen Aleena's hologram faded away and the triplets sped off.

"That episode always gives me a laugh," Ryan said to himself. He turned off the television and the DVD player. Ryan stood up to stretch and made his way into the kitchen. Once he reached the kitchen, he was greeted by a spunky and hyperactive Shih Tzu, his pet dog and one of his best friends, Roxy. Whenever Roxy sees Ryan, or anyone for that matter, she can easily be mistaken for her family feeding her sugar cubes in her food dishes.

Ryan game a chuckle seeing the fluffy tiny dog trying to climb up his leg. He bent over and scooped Roxy in his arms. Ryan never really held Roxy like a little puppy. He always held her like a baby, one arm around her body and the other under her butt. Ryan allowed Roxy to lick his face. His family always found that gross, but Ryan never minded Roxy's face-licking at all.

"Ooh, Rock-a-roni. I'm back, how have you been since I've been watching my shows?" Ryan asked happily to his puppy letting her lick him more.

**2**

Outside, the entire neighborhood was unaware of a group of shadows slowly approaching the little suburban house with Ryan inside. One of the shadows, seeming to be the leader, halted the rest of the team in their tracks by holding up his arm. The supposed leader took a look at a small PDA in his hand. The screen on the PDA shows a profile picture of Ryan Perreault.

"That must be him," the leader said in a sinister wolf-like voice. "SWAT Bots, stay here until I call you in."

"Wait," another voice sounded. This voice sounded like it came from a largely built individual with a tint of dumb pronunciations. "Why does he want him?"

"You goof, because he's just perfect. The body, the muscle tones, and the abilities this man possesses, he's perfect. Plus, he was listed as someone who knew about Robotropolis."

"But, he's just a simple aircraft mechanic," the dumb-voice spoke.

"I know. That's why we looked heavily into his profile. He's just a simple aircraft mechanic. He may be Army, but he shouldn't be of any resistance whatsoever," the leader said. He stood up and began approaching the house.

"Uh, where are you going?"

"Well, he's just a simple guy. I can handle him myself," the wolf-like guy said as he approached the house with a taser gun in hand. Little did the wolf know was that the profile he got on Ryan was only half true.

**3**

Back inside the house, Ryan rolled on the kitchen floor playing with his dog. Soon, it got to the point where his face was too wet and he was getting tired.

"Okay, Rocky, my face is moist enough. Good night," Ryan said giving Roxy a few more pats.

As Roxy gave a nod, she turned and left by going downstairs into Ryan's bedroom. Years ago, Ryan decided to move his bedroom in the basement where it is sound-proof and the light is low. The only natural enemy Ryan has, it is the sunlight which burns him up quite easily.

Ryan walked to the refrigerator and opened it up. He looked inside to find himself a midnight snack, even though midnight is only an hour away.

"Hello, Mr. Chocolate. Fill me up," he said to himself. He pulled out a bottle of chocolate syrup, popped the top, leaned back his head, and squirted the delicious chocolate syrup in his mouth.

Once he was done while keeping some of the syrup in his mouth, he put the syrup back in the fridge and pulled out the carton of milk. He just popped the top and drank about a cup of milk right from the carton. After he finished, he put the lid back on and put the milk back in the fridge.

"Nothing better than a good glass of chocolate milk, minus the glass," Ryan said to himself.

Ryan closed the refrigerator hatch and opened the freezer. He looked around and saw a half eaten chocolate Easter bunny. He picked it up, took a bite, and put it back. He smiled to himself knowing he has the best life in the world as he closed the freezer door. His parents always tell him that he has the good life. All his life, all he cared about was getting his schoolwork done so he does not have any homework. During the summer, Ryan never applied for a job just so he can enjoy his vacation at home where he felt safe. Due to recent years, Ryan now feels safe no matter where he is. Believe it; Ryan has been to more places than imaginable by any world traveler.

Suddenly, Ryan heard a footstep sound several feet behind him. He did not know who it was. His parents are in Washington, his sister is in Connecticut, and his relatives would have rung the doorbell. In a quick flash, Ryan literally whipped the USP gun out of his holster, spun on his heel, and faced the direction of the footsteps with both hands on his gun.

Once he saw who was at the doorframe of the kitchen, he was shocked. The figure that stood five feet away was not a living being, but a living cartoon! It was like he was staring at a 2-Dimentional bright cardboard cutout, but the shadows on the walls and reflections in the glass shown other angles indicating three-dimensions.

"No, it can't be. You don't exist!" he yelled. Right in front of him was none other than Sonic Underground's own bad guy, Sleet! He was almost as tall as Ryan, but Ryan was still about a hair taller. Sleet stood there, leading on the doorsill with both arms crossed. He is a large wolf wearing a bounty-hunter's gear and purple cape.

"Good evening," Sleet said with a sneer, "by orders of Doctor Robotnik, you are placed under arrest and taken to Mobius for robotosization!"

"What shit did I do?" Ryan asked as his fear turned into his neutral emotion. Ryan glared at Sleet as he kept his gun pointed at him.

"Nothing, we just wanted a human citizen from Earth for first robotosization. Now, come with me," Sleet said as he regained his posture and took a step toward Ryan.

"Don't move!" Ryan shouted in a deep military tone.

That shout froze Sleet right in his tracks. What scared Sleet the most was the determined look in Ryan's eyes as he held the firearm directly at Sleet. Sleet knew this guy was Army, but he never expected Ryan to be truly determined with his weapon. What also scared Sleet was that he looked in Ryan's eyes and saw, not only was Ryan not afraid to use his weapon, but that this is not the first time Ryan ever pointed that gun, or any gun, on someone. If possible, Ryan's eyes also looked like he has actually shot someone before. That could not be possible because Ryan's U.S. Army profile stated that he never fired a weapon since Basic Training, but his eyes tell differently.

Ryan slowly stepped his lead leg in front of him and slid his trailing leg behind him. Sleet was scared now because Ryan has the posture of an expert. He was expecting a tough Army guy, but this guy was almost beyond human.

"Hands up! Let me see your hands! Now!" Ryan shouted. Without question, Sleet threw both of his hands up in the air. "Turn around, on your knees, interlock your fingers behind your head, and cross your ankles." Sleet did as he was told out of fear. He felt his taser sidearm being swiped quickly out of his belt.

For the first time ever, Ryan held onto a cartoon gun. No matter which angle he looked at it, the outlines were all thin black like ink, yet it felt three-dimensional. Ryan shook his head and snapped out of it. He placed the gun on the kitchen counter behind him.

"You have any other weapons on you?" Ryan asked in a harsh tone while keeping his USP fixed on the back of Sleet's head. Sleet shook his head. "You sure? You better not be lying to me."

Ryan used his left hand to pat down Sleet. He patted his sleeves, his belts, his ankles, and any other place where weapons could be stored. It felt weirder touching Sleet than touching the cartoon gun. He was fluffy like his dog, yet he looks flat no matter what angle he is looking at him from. The clothes and hair even reacted and moved by the movement of his hand. Sleet felt even more afraid of this man by the strength of his hand. He felt as if this guy was an expert at what he is doing, has done it hundreds maybe thousands of times, and his touches are quite strong for simple pats. He finally stepped away, bringing both hands on his gun.

"Okay, stand up," Ryan told Sleet. Sleet stood up again, keeping his back facing Ryan. "Kick your boots off." Sleet never got the chance to kick his boots off.

"I'll get him, Sleet!" a familiar dumb-sounding voice yelled. Ryan turned around and to his surprise was Dingo charging at him with Sleet's gun in his hand. Where there was one, there was the other. Dingo must have taken Sleet's gun off the counter while he was not looking. Dingo is also an anthromorphic carton character just like Sleet, only he was tall, orange, and massively muscular. One disadvantage with Dingo was his absent mind. He may be strong, but he is dumb as a rock.

Dingo held out his arms to grab Ryan's gun, but Ryan instantly kicked up his foot ramming it into Dingo's crotch! Dingo bent down on his knees and held his groin in pain. Ryan hammered the back of his gun behind Dingo's head.

Sleet immediately turned heel and charged at Ryan. He grabbed Ryan's arms, but Ryan hooked his arms around Sleet's and head-butted his nose hard. Sleet fell backwards, feeling his nose in pain.

Suddenly, crashing in through the front door are true-to-life Sonic Underground versions of SWAT Bots! They seemed to be about Ryan's height but a hair taller. The bots fired their laser blasts at Ryan. Ryan dove head first behind the kitchen counters to avoid being blasted. When Sleet and Dingo saw Ryan diving behind the counter, he could have been injured in the process, but looked like he would rather be injured than shot.

"Don't shoot at him! We need him alive!" Sleet called.

Ryan placed his back to the counter. With the USP still in his hand, he believed now was the time to use it. He knew there was already a bullet in the chamber, so he used his thumb to pull back the hammer and flip the safety switch off. After a second, the SWAT Bot stopped firing. After a tiny pause, Ryan jumped to his feet, aimed, and squeezed the trigger on his gun bursting a Full Metal Jacket 9 by 19 millimeter bullet at the SWAT Bot. The bullet pierced right through the metal and completely short-circuited the bot.

Two more SWAT Bots appeared coming from the living room windows. Ryan spun on his heel facing them, dropped to his knee, and fired three bullets at them. Two bullets hit one killing it and the other bullet killed the other SWAT Bot.

Next thing Ryan knew, Dingo grabbed Ryan by bear hug from behind.

"I got him, Sleet!" Dingo yelled as Sleet tried to get up.

Ryan quickly dropped his weight a little, bent forward and brought Dingo up and forward, he gripped Dingo's arms tightly, straightened his legs and twisted at the same time, throwing Dingo over his hip and onto the floor.

Ryan spun on his heal and kicked Sleet in the nose again making them both fall on the ground. Sleet felt more pain getting a combat boot kicked to the nose. If the boot was steel-toed, it would have hurt worse. Sleet and Dingo felt more fear, this mission was supposed to be a simple snatch and extract, but it is turning to be a disaster.

Ryan quickly ran into the family room where the exit was. But there were already a few SWAT Bots at the door. Ryan fired three bullets at the Bots. Only two died. Ryan quickly ran the other way to the kitchen only to be stopped by more SWAT Bots! Ryan ran the other way and was face-to-face with a bot.

The bot grabbed Ryan's black T-shirt with its right hand and prepared to fire its laser with the other. Ryan quickly twisted slightly to the right, brought his left arm up and over the top of the bots arm and struck it down with his hand on the bots elbow hinge which pulled the bot down knocking it off balance. Ryan kept his face down and he rammed his elbow in the bots face causing the bot to let Ryan go.

Another bot came from behind it to fire on Ryan. Ryan noticed he was standing right next to the basement door. He grabbed the handle and rammed it open knocking the bot backwards. Ryan ran down and slammed the door behind him. He grabbed the fire extinguisher next to him and lodged it between the door knob and frame, completely holding it in place. However, he knew they would eventually break through. Just to make sure, Ryan burst two more rounds through the door, leaving two holes, and he ran down stairs.

Ryan looked around the basement and noticed there was no way out. He gasped and remembered something.

"Roxy?" Ryan called out. No one answered. "Roxy!" No answer. Ryan did not know that Roxy is hiding in Ryan's little closet scared. The SWAT Bots never found her before the end of the night and Ryan remained scared about her from that point on.

**4**

Upstairs, Sleet and Dingo got to their feet. Both are in pain after being thrown to the ground and kicked in the face.

"Stop standing around, you metal heads, go after him!" Sleet yelled.

The SWAT Bots used all of their strength to break down the door being held shut by the fire extinguisher.

Downstairs, Ryan held his bag open and started filling it with stuff. The bag he used is a military standard one-sling bag with two large pockets in the front and two small ones on both sides. In the large pockets he placed both of his water-filled canteens in them. In the smaller pockets, he loaded in spare USP magazines. In the large bag itself, he stuffed in his instruction manuals, his military books, his other gear including red dot sights for his pistol, a flashlight, night vision goggles, a radio, a baton, a stack of flexi-cuffs, his grandfather's ring he received one summer day, his trademark black boonie hat with a pin on it, and his Heckler and Koch 50 Tactical Fixed Blade knife with holster. He packed all that stuff in his bag and swung it over his shoulder. Ryan grabbed his gun and slowly made his way to the bulkhead door in the back of the laundry room.

Finally, the SWAT Bots were able to break open the door. They saw the fire extinguisher tumble down the stairs and into the basement. The bots slowly made their way down and ended up in Ryan's bedroom. They looked around and noticed the room was empty.

Sleet and Dingo moved on ahead of the group and peered around the room. They led the bots into the laundry room and saw the bulkhead door open leading to the dark outside.

"Uh, Sleet, I don't see the guy," Dingo said. Sleet grew angry knowing it was obvious.

"Oh really, how about you try to find him rather than saying he's gone!" Sleet shouted angrily. Dingo looked around until he saw Ryan's shadow running far away down the street.

"Uh, Sleet, how can that guy's shadow move all by itself?" Dingo asked stupidly.

Sleet noticed Ryan running and grew angry.

"You idiot, that's him! SWAT Bot's seize the boy!" Sleet yelled. The SWAT Bots ran after Ryan using jetpacks.

Ryan ran down the non-busy road as fast as he could, thumping the bag behind him. He looked behind him to see the SWAT Bots coming. Ryan ran to a tree and dove behind it. He rolled over to face the incoming SWAT Bots and aimed his USP at them lying prone. Ryan burst three rounds at the fast-moving SWAT Bots and two of them exploded. As soon as Ryan saw five more coming, he got up and ran back toward another tree.

"Peel one! Peeling, peeling, peeling!" Ryan shouted out loud. He knew he had no team members to tap their shoulders, but that quote came out of him due to habits.

Down the street, Sleet got angry seeing the bots being blown up.

"How can he do all this, Sleet?" Dingo asked.

"I don't know and I don't care, we'll catch him ourselves!" Sleet said. He pulled out his remote, pointed it at Dingo, and fired it. Dingo morphed into a motorcycle. Sleet got on it and drove off in pursuit of Ryan.

At the end of the street, Ryan kept bobbing between the tree lines with the five remaining SWAT Bots in pursuit. Ryan got behind a tree avoiding a laser blast. Once the laser's stopped, Ryan, on his knees, peeked over and burst four rounds at the SWAT Bots. Four exploded, leaving one SWAT Bot as the last one standing. On the fourth round, the gun's slide locked back in place. Ryan pressed his thumb on the magazine release button and the empty magazine ejected out.

Just as Ryan was about to grab another magazine from his bag, he heard the lone SWAT Bot running, approaching him. He had no time to reload, so he holstered his USP and pulled out his H&K 50 knife. Just as the SWAT Bot stood next to him by the tree, Ryan grabbed the bots gun arm, held the bot in a chock hold, and used the knife to cut one of the bots fuel pumps visible in the neck region. Slowly, the bot died down from loss of fuel and power.

Ryan dropped the bot on the ground. He picked up a fresh magazine from his bag and un-holstered his gun. He slid the magazine in the handle and used his thumb to close the slide release. The slide on the gun closed, immediately putting a round in the barrel and having the hammer cocked.

Sleet and motorcycle-Dingo were driving all the way to Ryan at the end of the street. Ryan turned around to see them coming. He aimed his gun at them.

"Freeze!" Ryan shouted, echoing the whole neighborhood. However, Sleet and Dingo stood their ground and pursued forward, mainly because they were so close to Ryan. Ryan had no choice. Once they got close enough, Ryan stepped aside and swung his arm out at Sleet, causing Sleet to fall back and off his motorcycle-Dingo.

"Uh oh," Dingo said. Dingo, without a driver, fell over and tumbled on the ground.

Ryan stood back and kept his gun fixed on both Sleet and Dingo. Sleet and Dingo slowly got up and they look right at Ryan.

"Don't move!" Ryan shouted. "Do not move! Hands! Show me your hands! Now!"

Sleet and Dingo obediently did as they were told. Somewhere in the confusion, Sleet dropped his laser gun on the ground. Just as Sleet noticed it, Ryan already kicked it away.

"On your knees, both of you!" Ryan ordered. "Interlace your fingers behind your heads and cross your ankles."

Sleet and Dingo did so, both in fear. Their entire SWAT Bot squadron was taken out, destroyed, gone, and wiped. Only those two remain. They thought to themselves how can a simple Army aircraft mechanic do such things?

"Don't fight me or I will kill the both of you," Ryan softly growled. The serious tone in his voice said that he has killed before.

In their experiences as bounty hunters, Sleet and Dingo have killed robots before and felt nothing. In fact, it felt like fun when they blew up two of Robotnik's SWAT Bots once to steal a Chaos Emerald. However, when Sleet and Dingo killed living beings for the first time, they felt cold and froze. In experience of killing, they had no problem doing it again and again. Ryan here, however, the tone of his voice expresses that same kind of experience somehow. They saw him kill their SWAT Bots, but he sounded like he has killed living beings before. Not just animals, he sounded like he has killed humans many times. How can that possibly be possible? Ryan's Army profile says that he just has a simple job as an aircraft mechanic on a local base. No simple soldier can have a tone like this.

Sleet then felt Ryan's strong hand feel all over him again. This time, Ryan felt something clipped underneath Sleet's belt. Ryan reached under his belt and pulled out what looks like a garage door opener. He did not notice it earlier because Ryan forgot to pat down Sleet's belt back at his kitchen.

"What's this?" Ryan asked, holding the device in Sleet's face. "Huh? What is it?"

Sleet shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know—"

"You don't know?" Ryan harshly snapped, causing Sleet to flinch a bit. "Your squad is dead! You ordered your SWAT Bots to not shoot, I'm more valuable alive. And I catch you with this remote thing hidden in an unusually hidden place and you're telling me you don't know what it is? Are you some kind of a dummy or something? What if it was a bomb designed to kill you? Huh? Then what? You carried it with you where it cannot be found and you have no clue what it is? Are you stupid?! Are you fucking stupid?!"

Dingo's eyes widened by that language Ryan just used.

"Hey, watch your language," Dingo said. Ryan responded by snapping his gun aiming at Dingo.

"Did I give you permission to speak?!" Ryan shouted, causing the whole neighborhood to hear. "Huh? Did I give you permission to open your skull on your disgusting fucked-up face? Did I, you dirt bag?! Fuck this shit! You don't seem to know shit and your wolf-faced partner doesn't seem to know what the fuck this fucking device is! Were you supposed to fuck me with it?! Is that it?!"

"It's a Dimensional Matter Displacer!" Dingo confessed loudly. Sleet grunted, and Ryan paused with a grin.

"Alright, now we're finally getting somewhere. So, tell me, what is this Dimensional Matter Displacer used for?" Ryan asked Dingo.

"It's for—" Sleet began.

"I don't remember asking you anything!" Ryan snapped at Sleet. Silence was among them again. Sure, Sleet and Dingo are professional bounty hunters, but the only reason Ryan has them both is because he is the one with the gun and has shown strict expression that he is not afraid to use it to take both of their lives.

"It's for traveling through dimensions," Dingo said after the silent pause.

"Dimensions? Like traveling from your world to mine?" Ryan asked. Dingo nodded. "So why are you after me?"

"I don't know," Dingo replied. Ryan looked at Dingo's face and saw the triangle on his forehead between his eyes. No cringed up wrinkles means he is telling the truth. Ryan turned heel and faced Sleet.

"Okay, Sleet, why does Robotnik want me?" Ryan asked him.

"I don't know," Sleet replied. However, Ryan noticed a flinch of a wrinkle form on Sleet's nose when he said 'don't' which means he is lying.

"Don't lie to me. Why does Robotnik want me?" Ryan asked more sternly this time.

"All I know is that he wants a human to be robotosized," Sleet said. "We just wanted a regular random human. We narrowed it down to someone smart, athletic, strong in muscles and head, can control his stress, and very optimistic. That turned out to be you, but we were nervous when we saw you were in the United States Army."

That was when Ryan became nervous. He could not let anybody know about him or what he does in the Army.

"So, we checked your file heavily and all we were able to find out was that you are an aircraft mechanic working out at the 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Air National Guard Base with no overseas experience," Sleet continued. Upon hearing that, Ryan almost collapsed while letting out a long sigh of pure relief. He smiled happily knowing what they know about him, or what they think they know about him.

"That's it?" Ryan asked getting up.

"Yes," Sleet nodded.

"Okay, I'm going to have to place you two under arrest for breaking and entering, possession of a deadly weapon in a suburban town with intent to use it, and attempted kidnapping of a U.S. Army personnel with knowledge of my profile," Ryan said as he reached in his bag for a flexi-cuff.

Suddenly, Dingo got brave! He jumped up and tacked Ryan! Sleet got up as well and ran to his gun that was kicked across the street.

Instantly, Ryan grabbed both of Dingo's arms and flipped him over before kicking Dingo's legs knocking him off balance. Dingo fell to the ground on his back. In the confusion, Ryan dropped his gun and the strap to his bag slipped off of him.

"Whoa," Sleet said to himself.

Dingo quickly got up and grabbed Ryan's neck. Ryan quickly grabbed Dingo's left arm with his right hand, threw all his weight to the right and brought his arm over both of Dingo's arms breaking him free. Ryan had grip of Dingo's left hand and he twisted the hand joint causing Dingo to scream in pain. Then Ryan kneed Dingo in the face causing Dingo to fall on his stomach.

Sleet was surprised seeing all this.

Dingo got up and faced Ryan again. Dingo began to throw a punch at him. Ryan quickly grabbed it, wrapped his arm around Dingo's arm and he rammed his fist right into Dingo's face. Then Ryan kneed him in the groin knocking him down again.

Sleet was amazed seeing Dingo knocked off his feet three times by someone who was less muscular than him. Dingo quickly crawled back to Sleet.

"Sleet, stun him?" Dingo cried.

Ryan dove head first to grab his USP gun on the ground. Just as he grabbed it and aimed it at Sleet, Sleet already fired a stun-pulse at Ryan, knocking him unconscious.

"There, that was easy," Sleet said. Dingo slowly got up after his pain was gone.

Ryan moaned a bit as his eyes began to slowly open, unable to move. Sleet bent over and picked up the stunned Ryan by his shirt-collar. Dingo grabbed Ryan's bag and gun. He also reached the back of Ryan's pants and removed his H&K 50 knife from its holster.

"Come on, Dingo, let's go," Sleet said. He grabbed his Dimensional Matter Displacer device and shot it directly ahead of them in the street. A large blue portal opened in the middle of the street.

Ryan moved his head and saw they were heading into it.

"No, no. Fuck you, no," Ryan barely said.

Soon, the three stepped in the portal and it disappeared behind them!

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

_In loving memory of Roxy Perreault, my Shih Tzu (1992-2005)_


	2. Breakout and Airborne

**CHAPTER 2**

**Breakout and Airborne**

**1**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

It was a medium spring afternoon at the home of Ryan Perreault. The sun is bright and shining on everything. Warm weather is practically here, which will soon cause the remaining small piles of snow left around to melt away soon. Outside of Ryan's house is a taxi cab waiting for him.

Inside, a young-looking red-headed woman followed Ryan into the living room with the look of fear and nervousness on her face.

"Ryan, it's not like you were forced into doing this," the woman said to him. Walking through the room is Ryan Perreault, though he looks less muscular than before and his red hair is nearly all shaven off, leaving a slightly tinted shade of dark red on his scalp. He is wearing the U.S. Army's battle dress uniform with the brand new ACU Digital pattern. On a strip hanging down his center gig-line is an insignia pin showing two upside-down V chevrons, ranking him as a Corporal (E-4). In his hand he is carrying a standard Army-issued duffle bag.

Ryan stopped at the door and looked back at the woman following him.

"Yes, mom, you're right," Ryan said to her, "I was not forced into doing this. That's why it's an all-volunteer unit."

The woman, claiming to be Ryan's mother, shook her head.

"No, I don't believe it. All they're going to do is brainwash you, turn you into some kind of a robot, and you'll come home a completely different man."

Ryan sighed hearing that. He knew his mother was against his decision to join the Army right after high school to begin with, but it did help them out in the long run.

"Mom, listen. I love my job and I love what I worked so hard to do. Besides, I never had any problems during Basic Training like you said I would. You said I would get raped by rednecks, but it turned out Basic was full of kind people with the same goal as mine, and that influenced teamwork in the end," Ryan explained. "Hey, look on the bright side, we've got our health care paid for, they're paying for my sister's college, they've also helped me become a greater man than before. But I want more, mom. That's why I signed up for this."

"Oh, Ryan, I didn't want you to do this because my cousin was assaulted when he was joining the Marines," his mother said.

"Mom, that was back in 1973. Pretty much everything has changed since then. In fact, things changed in 1974. They don't allow criminals in the Army anymore. Besides, when I heard that joining the Army was a punishment for cons, I felt offended. To me, joining the Army is a high honor and society finds it as cruel and unusual punishment? That's fine, but I don't want you to think that way as well."

"Ryan, I just want you to be okay. I don't want you to get hurt out there, that's all. There are a lot of sick and crazy people in this world."

"Yes, I know, but not all six billion people on the planet are sick and crazy."

"But most of them are in the Army."

"No, they're not!" Ryan snapped. "Mom, the Army is three words, honor, integrity, and respect. Every person I met truly holds onto those three words for dear life." Ryan sighed. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, but things have changed over the decade. The Army is no longer a punishment for cons. In fact, you steel a candy bar or got a school detention, they won't take you."

That was when Ryan's mother bowed her head. In some ways, Ryan was right, things have changed. She just does not want to see her baby getting hurt.

"And if the Army wont take you for simple stuff like that, imagine how much good will is a pre-requisite for the career path that I want to take," Ryan said like a happy announcer style. His mom chuckled a bit at that voice.

Ryan slowly approached his mom and looked at her in the eyes.

"Mom, please relax. I told you about these guys and what it takes to become one. They have a failure ratio of at leased 70 to 80. With any luck, I'll be back home this time tomorrow. But I will 100 fail if I don't even try. Our country needs strong brave men to undertake these jobs. I know how dangerous they are, but it's like being a surgeon. The job is dangerous but it's also extremely important."

"Really? With my luck, you'll be back soon?" Ryan's mom asked. Ryan nodded. "But I don't want you to feel bad if you fail." Ryan led out a hearty laugh.

"No way. It's like applying to Harvard or Princeton or Yale, those colleges are hard to get into and you shouldn't cry for not getting accepted, because your chances of getting in are so limited. You understand where I'm coming from, mom?"

His mother nodded her head.

"However, with the 20 chance I've got and I do end up passing; will you at leased come to my graduation?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, Ryan, of course I will!" his mother said happily and hugged her son. She planted her face in his uniform with the digital pattern in it. "I know how much this means to you and I know the things you've done to yourself all last year to prepare for this."

"So, can I go?" Ryan asked like a little child. In reality, Ryan had no option because he already enlisted for this and was too late to cancel, but Ryan wanted his mother to have one last feeling of power again.

"Oh, of course you can, sweetie," his mom replied. Then the taxi outside honked its horn.

"The cab's waiting. I better get going now," Ryan said. He kissed his mother on the lips like he might never see her again, which turned out to not be true.

"Bye, Ry-guy," his mom said as Ryan turned to leave out the door. Just before Ryan walked out the door, his mom called out again. "Hey, Ryan!"

"Yo?" Ryan asked freezing at the door frame.

"At maximum, how long will you be gone?" she asked. Ryan looked up at the ceiling thinking of the numbers.

"Oh, the training lasts for 60 weeks. Check the calendar I left for you, you'll know what I'll be doing each day. And don't worry, I'll still be the same son you've always raised. Sure, I'll be more observant, more productive, more physically fit, but I will always be Ryan Michael Perreault and he is your son. I will always be the same. I love you, mom."

With that, Ryan walked out the door wearing his U.S. Army battle dress uniform in the ACU Digital pattern. Ryan placed his duffle bag in the trunk of the cab and got in the back seat.

Ryan's mother looked out the glass screen door as she watched her oldest child, her only son, being driven away in a cab to become a completely different man. What she fears is, will he be the same if he completes? Ryan's only worry is, will he complete. Only time will tell, and that time is in 60 weeks and counting.

**2**

_PRESENT DAY_

A hovercraft is driving and inside is Sleet, Dingo, SWAT Bot's, and a handcuffed Ryan. Ryan just starred at the two evilly. What surprised Sleet and Dingo was that, even though he was taken from his home dimension, he seemed cool under fire.

"So, you two must be Shit and Fucko," Ryan said.

"Actually, I'm Dingo and this is Sleet," Dingo said. Sleet hit him.

"May I ask where I am? What is going on? And where you are taking me?" Ryan said.

"You seem to ask a lot of questions," Sleet said.

"That's true. Do me a favor and answer them, fuck-head," Ryan said rudely.

"First, work on your language," Sleet said.

"Fuck you," Ryan replied back. After a slight pause, Sleet decided to answer Ryan's questions.

"Well, you are in a special prison hover truck on your way to mete Doctor Robotnik for robotosization. That means we are going to turn you into a mindless robot slave. Or, in your case, a warrior. Robotnik would be so pleased having someone like you on his side," Sleet told him.

"That's very interesting. But may I ask why me?" Ryan asked.

"We needed a human from the planet Earth. One that speaks English, has an average build for his weight and size, and had to be male. However, we found out you were part of the United States Army, one of Earth's toughest militaries next to the British, Russian, and Israeli just to name a few. Once we checked your profile and found out you were just a simple aircraft mechanic, we didn't have to worry about resistance" Sleet said. "Though I still don't know how you were able to wipe out our entire team. I thought about it and I decided that you just got lucky. I mean, all soldiers have weapons and self-defense training. Doesn't matter, because we got you."

"Nice work, jerk-off," Ryan said smiling. "But why would you want to robotosize humans? They're no different from animals. And how did I end up here?"

"We told you, we used a Dimensional Matter Displacer. We can travel to your world and grab new humans for our army," Sleet continued.

"A Dimensional Matter Displacer, eh? Did you grab any other humans?" Ryan asked.

"Nope, first we must give it a test. After we test it on you, then we will go back to Earth and grab more."

Suddenly, the huge hovercraft stopped and a voice on the intercom spoke.

"We're at the site, ready to unload," the voice said.

"Understood," Sleet said in the intercom.

Sleet and Dingo stood up and picked Ryan up by his arms. Dingo carried the bag Ryan had with him, including his gun and knife. The large doors opened and they escorted Ryan out of the hovercraft and into what looks like the main building of Robotropolis.

As the three walked through, Sleet and Dingo paid no attention to Ryan's expressions. Ryan kept looking around the entire building complex. He quietly counted his steps as he walked, counted the number of security cameras and how much they rotated, number of SWAT Bots on duty, corridors, weapons cache, defensive positions, and much more.

Sleet and Dingo forced Ryan to stop at a large bulkhead door with a keypad on it. Neither of them paid attention as Ryan stared his eyes at the keypad as the code was being pressed. The bulkhead door opened and they entered in another corridor where there seemed to be a watch station.

Dingo stopped and handed the robot at the watch station Ryan's bag. The robot behind the counter appeared to be an elderly lion. It was Cyrus' dad.

"Lock this up," Dingo told Cyrus' dad. The lion robot took the bag and walked to a locker. Ryan kept his eyes fixed on the locker as the robot grabbed the dial. Ryan stared as the dial turned clockwise to ten, counter-clockwise to twenty, and clockwise again to nine. Ten-twenty-nine. 10-20-9.

The locker door opened and Cyrus' father slid the bag inside and locked it in shut. Then Ryan was moved further in down the corridor to the prison cells.

**3**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan Perreault is on a bus traveling through the beautiful landscapes of Georgia. The bus he is on somewhat made him feel uncomfortable due to the chicken wire bars on the windows. It felt like a prison bus. Ryan asked himself why would they put these wires up, he does not even want to leave. In fact, the other passengers on the bus feel the same way. All the other passengers are all wearing U.S. Army battle dress uniforms with the ACU digital patterns. Each of them are wearing different squadron patches on their shoulders and all are wearing American flag patches. They all also had one thing in common, they were all active duty; none are in the reserves or the guard.

Finally, the bus slowed down to a stop as it entered in the gates of a military base. The doors opened all the soldiers, including Ryan, were called outside. Obediently, they did as they were told and they all stood at the position of attention in one long line carrying their duffle bags.

Standing in front of them are a group of Army soldiers, wearing the same uniforms as the recruits. One of them, appearing to be an office due to the two-bar symbol on his collar, stepped forward and addressed all the recruits, which appeared to be about fifty of them.

"Welcome to the United States Army Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia," the officer announced. "Some of you have different goals in your mind as to where you want to go after this, but most of you are here for one purpose only. That purpose is to turn yourselves from an average soldier to an Airborne soldier. What you want to do with this training afterwards is up to you. Now, realized I said most of you. I wont lie. A small percentage of you men will not make it past this course. I had recruits quit after the first week."

Upon hearing this, Ryan gulped, but he has prepared himself for this. The instructor continued.

"Now, Airborne School is divided into three weeks. The first week, starting today, is called Ground Week. During Ground Week, we will work on the fundamentals from jumping from an aircraft and preparing you for hitting the ground. Next will be Tower Week. In that week, we will attach you to 10 foot, 34 foot, and 250 foot towers and drop you in a simulated combat Airborne jump. Finally, we will move on to Jump Week. There, you will jump from an aircraft, specifically a C-130 or a C-141, at different altitudes and in different conditions. Once you pass this course, you will move on with further advanced training that you signed up for. If you fail, you will be returned to your home unit. You can try again here some other time. Speaking of which, I do see some familiar faces. I hope none of you screw it up badly last time. Alright, when I say 'sound off, tell us what you want to be,' you say 'Airborne.' Alright, sound off, tell us what you want to be!"

"Airborne!" the recruits, including Ryan, shouted.

"Good," the officer said. He then turned to another instructor. This other instructor is huge and has chevrons on his collars indicating he is enlisted. "Sergeant Major, take over."

The Sergeant Major stepped forward and began his announcement.

"Okay, I want all of you guys to grab your bags and head to that white building over there by the dorms. You will be issued your gear from there. Then I want you to take a seat in the classroom in an orderly fashion. Is that understood?" the Sergeant Major asked.

"Yes, sir!" the recruits shouted.

"Dismissed," he said.

Ryan, as well as the others, grabbed their bags and casually jogged to the white building that the Sergeant Major announced. Once inside, Ryan was given a set of parachute gear and ordered to take a seat in the classroom. The classroom was just a large room with a podium, a projector with a sheet on the wall, several tables, and chairs. Ryan sat in the front row almost directly ahead of the podium, waiting for an instructor to stand up to it.

Ryan Perreault thought to himself that he could not believe he was actually here. He hated his regular job in the Army and he hated how he was not more than he wanted to be. Coming here was his dream and his true passion in life. He worked out and mentally stabilized himself for such a harsh training, but he was prepared for it. He remembered in Basic Training that he was granted the Expert Rifleman badge and graduated with high honors of his class, even though it was only nine weeks. Ryan also took a grueling physical in hopes to pass and he did. He also remembered those hard tests he took such as the ASVAB and the GET, both in which he was lucky to get a high score on.

All that Ryan Perreault could hope for was that he would not be one of the 80 to fail and be sent home. Well, he just started his first week. Get through this week of training and he has only got 59 to go.

**4**

_PRESENT DAY_

In a different room, Robotnik was typing stuff down on a computer. The computer screen showed a program called "DMD." He pressed the enter key and a file download box appeared. It quickly downloaded something. Then the screen showed a circle closing. Once it was closed, a box showed, "DMD closed."

Robotnik smiled at this. He turned off the computer.

"I just hope the resistance doesn't know about this," Robotnik said to himself.

**5**

In the dungeon, a cell opened and Ryan was thrown in it after his handcuffs were taken off. The cell door closed and locked. Ryan got up and saw that Sleet and Dingo, the ones who threw him in there, are walking away. Soon, they were gone and Ryan realized he was the only prisoner in the dungeon.

"Son of a bitch," Ryan said amazed. He instantly realized that he is in a cartoon world. Sure, seeing cartoon characters was amazing enough, but actually being in a cartoon world was amazing. He turned around and looked out the back window and saw ruins, robots and hovercraft.

Ryan then believed that the cell he was in could be monitored, so he sat on the prison stool and sang some random songs from his favorite artists, such as Bruce Springsteen, the Eagles, Billy Joel, and other random classic rock songs. That way, any monitoring listening devices in the cell wont pick up and background sounds as to that Ryan is really doing.

"Robotropolis?" Ryan thought to himself through his songs. "Holy shit, I'm on Mobius! Wait, if this is Mobius, and that was Sleet and Dingo, it must also have Robotnik, then somewhere in the city must also have..."

He gasped in thought. Ryan jumped up onto the bars on his windows just as he switched to the Eagles song, 'Take it Easy.'

"I hope they know I'm here and they come save me," Ryan thought to himself. Then he realized that the portal going in and out was pretty silent, he ended up on Mobius far away from the boarder of Robotropolis, and if he can recall how the ride felt on its turns, he did not feel anything of turning toward the rebel hidden base nor herd Sonic's running sound.

"I'm probably going to have to do this by myself!" Ryan thought.

Then, he got down on his knees, picked up a rock in his cell and began carving designed into the floor with his back facing the cell door. He knew there was a camera on the wall facing his cell, so he turned his back to it so the security of the place would not see what he was doing.

Ryan carved out lightly what he remembered seeing and possible escape routes. Lightly so he can brush it away if guards are coming. There was no way he would escape from the cell itself and he remembered passing by an interrogation room. He figured that Robotnik would want to ask him some questions about his performance before turning him into a mindless robot. Robotosizing him would be like unplugging an arcade game, all the scores will be erased. He knew Robotnik would want to interrogate him before robotosizing him, which means that would have to be his escape point. From there he must make his way to alternate or fire escapes to get away for the time being. After that, he had to make up what he was going to do next.

**6**

Sleet and Dingo entered the main control room where Robotnik was. Robotnik, hearing them enter, spun his chair around to face the two bounty hunters.

"Doctor Robotnik, we have captured the kid you wanted us to. He's in the dungeon, cell 138," Sleet said.

"Good, I bet it was no trouble at all," Robotnik said.

"Actually, he destroyed all of our SWAT Bot escorts and nearly ran half a mile away. He also threw me to the ground five times!" Dingo said. Sleet cringed because he believed they almost got away without telling Robotnik they lost the whole team. However, at the same time, Robotnik would have asked where the SWAT Bot team was.

Upon hearing this news, Robotnik was furious!

"What? He destroyed your entire SWAT Bot team? You two couldn't even catch a fish out of a fish bowl!" Robotnik yelled.

Sleet gave a nervous laugh.

"Well, we both did eventually capture him," Sleet said. Robotnik sighed.

"Okay, I give you credit for that. But I don't understand. He's just a 24-year-old man with a simple aircraft engineering job in the Army, how could have he destroyed SWAT Bots and threw Dingo to the ground?" Robotnik asked.

"My best guess is that he took some martial arts classes when he was young or something," Sleet suggested. Robotnik shook his head.

"No, those classes are for human against human, not human against machine. No, he's something more. I want that interrogation room prepped and well-guarded," Robotnik ordered.

"Want us to interrogate him, sir?" Sleet asked.

"No, I'll do it myself. Just get the room ready," Robotnik repeated. The three left the room.

**7**

Meanwhile, in the cell, Ryan was taking small steps around the cell doing slow fighting moves. Due to Ryan being right-handed, he brought his left fist in front of his face and his right fist on the right side of his face. His left leg stood out in front of him. Slowly, Ryan took one step forward with his left leg and he dragged his right foot behind him. This is a moving method called the step-and-slide.

Slowly, Ryan performed various hand-to-hand combat tactics in the air. He threw a lead punch, an elbow strike, and always ended each one by step-and-sliding backwards away from the invisible target.

Soon, Ryan heard a sound of a door opening from down the corridor. Quickly, Ryan dropped to his knees and wiped away the carvings on the ground. He completely thought of his escape plan, thought it out vigorously, took out the bad traits, left in the good, and now was the time to execute it. First, however, he needs them to take him to that interrogation room if that is where they will take him.

Sleet, Dingo, and a few SWAT Bot's are walking to Ryan's cells. They stopped right in front of him.

"So, you just came to show me a fat dick?" Ryan said rudely.

"Shut up," Sleet ordered. He unlocked the cell and opened it. "Robotnik wants to personally question you before we put you in the robotosizing chamber."

"And you're not even going to buy me dinner," Ryan said with a chuckle. The two SWAT Bots entered in the cell and grabbed both of Ryan's arms. They escorted Ryan down the halls and toward the interrogation room they passed earlier.

**8**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

It has been almost two weeks since Ryan Perreault first stepped in the United States Army's Airborne School in Fort Benning, Georgia. He passed the tests well, but only a small few of recruits have been sent home already. He went through various zip-lines, air pressure chambers, and was dropped from a ten-foot and a 34-foot tower. Ryan learned the posture to be in when parachuting, keeping his knees tight together and bent, flair his chute within five feet of the ground, and roll on the ground. Doing all of that is called a PLF, or a parachute landing fall.

Today, Ryan is now going to be in a tower far higher than the past ones. This tall tower is 250 feet high. Ryan stood on his knees, next to his other classmates, wearing a T-10 parachute and a realistic-weight pack of his gear. The instructor stood tall in front of them with the 250 tower behind him.

"Okay, Airborne, this here is the 250 foot drop tower. With the exception of the prop-blast and opening shock, a drop from this tower is similar to jumping from an aircraft. Remember to flair your parachute and perform a perfect parachute landing fall in the same manner as you will when you make your qualifying jump next week," the instructor announced. "First jumper, time to get in your rig."

Ryan Perreault's parachute was strapped to the crane of the tall 250 foot tower and ready to raise him. The instructor held out a megaphone so Ryan could hear him.

"Jumper going aloft. Assume a good led-up position with that T-10 parachute," the instructor reminded him over the megaphone. "And remember, as you are approaching the ground, keep your knees bent, flair, turn your body 90 degrees in the direction of your movement, and roll. Check canopy, check canopy, check canopy, look up and execute a good 360 degree check of your canopy."

Ryan looked up and saw the canopy of his parachute. He was checking for rips in the cloth, tangled cords, or any holes where there are not supposed to be any. Besides the holes already in the parachute, his parachute was fine. As he was looking up, he was shocked to feel his boots leave the ground. Ryan quickly realized the 250 foot tower was raising him above the ground.

"Alright, sound off and tell me what you want to be," the instructor called up.

"Airborne!" Ryan sounded off as loud as he could as he was being pulled up the tower.

"How's the view up there, Perreault?"

"Outstanding, sir!"

Ryan kept getting lifted up the tower slowly. The reason they do this is because they want their recruits to withstand overwhelming stress levels. If a simple recruit could not think on their feet and multitask in high levels of stress beyond human limits, they will be sent home or back to their home unit. Ryan, however, enjoyed being up this high.

"Only one way down now, Perreault," the instructor called up. "I hope you were paying attention during training, Perreault. I do not want to have a hole in my field."

Ryan kept getting higher and higher up the tower. He can easily see a flock of birds flying along the horizon. Ryan looked down and he felt like the way he felt when looking over the mid-section of the Statue of Liberty while on a school trip to New York City. Thing was, Ryan was still being pulled upward.

"Alright, Perreault, you are approaching the six-foot-stop. And you are there," the instructor called up.

Indeed, Ryan finally stopped and the crane holding his parachute locked in place. The crane held his parachute and his parachute held him 250 feet in the air. Ryan looked down and grinned at the sight. He felt like he was flying a Cessna with no canopy.

"Knees tight together, knees bent," the instructor reminded through his megaphone. "Sixty-nine times, sixty-nine times, sixty-nine times!"

Suddenly, without Ryan knowing, the hooks holding his chute released and dropped him. Ryan kept his knees bent and tightly touching each other. Even though he was wearing a parachute, he was dropping faster than expected. The ten-foot and 34-foot towers did not seem so bad, but this 250-foot tower was powerful!

Ryan dropped all the way down to the ground in a matter of seconds. He reacted quickly near the bottom but pulling on the straps of his chute, which faired his parachute to a near stop. He knew flaring too late would be ineffective, and flaring too soon could cause the chute to collapse. Ryan flared at the right time and hit the ground feet first softly. He let the rest of his body drop on the ground and rolled. As the parachute fell in a big bundle next to him, Ryan unclipped the chute off of him and stood up in front of his awaiting instructor.

"Perreault, your overall parachute landing fall was satisfactory. Good job," he said. Ryan let out a huge sigh of relief. All that was left is for him to jump out of the aircrafts next week. Hopefully, then, he will pass Airborne school and move on to his passion. His passion could have already started if he accepted Airborne school years ago when it was offered to him. The best thing was, he is doing it now and it is fresh in his mind for when the real hard tests come.

**9**

_PRESENT DAY_

The interrogation room was something Ryan has expected to see. A perfectly square room with a single heavy door, no window in case of escape, a chair bolted to the ground, a table with equipment on it, and a single lamp hanging over the chair.

The SWAT Bots forced Ryan to sit in the chair as they placed a long set of handcuffs on his wrists to the front. They locked the long chain underneath the chair's arms keeping Ryan in place.

"SWAT Bots, leave," Sleet ordered. The SWAT Bots left the room, leaving Ryan with Sleet and Dingo. Sleet took a few steps up to Ryan and glared down at him. "This is for what you did to me back on Earth." Next thing Ryan knew, Sleet rammed his fist in Ryan's gut. Ryan keeled over gasping for air. Ryan's eyes peeked up and he noticed a small three-pin key clipped to his belt. That was the key to Ryan's handcuffs.

"Go to hell," Ryan mumbled.

"What?" Sleet asked bending over to his face.

"I said go to hell," Ryan repeated. Sleet responded to this by punching Ryan in the gut again. Again, Ryan bent forward gasping for a breath.

While Ryan was bent forward, he heard the large metal door unlock and open. He looked up and, for the first time ever, Ryan Perreault saw Doctor Ivo Julian Robotnik. He looked scarier than on television, but Ryan saw things a lot worse than this in his time. If Ryan was able to stand up, he would have been taller than him.

"Sleet, Dingo, you two leave," Robotnik ordered. Robotnik voice however, just like in the cartoons, did not sound so scary. With that, Ryan got some leverage to resist his interrogations. "Look at me."

Ryan, without thinking, lifted his head up and stared coldly at Robotnik's eyes.

"I'm sure my companions told you that I wanted to have you robotosized. What that means is literally turn you into a mindless robot," Robotnik explained. Ryan knew what being robotosized was very well.

Ryan just glared at Robotnik.

"But before I do that, I want to know what is on your mind. Once I turn you into a robot, my first human robot, everything in your mind will be erased. Firstly, I want to know a few things, let's start off with some simple basic stuff. You are Ryan Michael Perreault, is that correct?"

Ryan said nothing. He was somewhat please to realize Robotnik was able to pronounce his last name correctly. Most people can never get it right on the first try, which is how his family is able to detect telemarketers with great ease.

"I'll assume you said yes," Robotnik continued. "We picked you but we realized you are in the United States Army, one of the toughest militaries on Earth. What is your current rank?"

Ryan said nothing. He stared at Robotnik angrily.

"Um, your file says you are an aircraft mechanic, where are you stationed?" Robotnik asked.

Ryan said nothing.

"One thing that puzzles me is that you wiped out my entire SWAT Bot squad. How is it possible for a mechanic to do that?" Robotnik asked.

Ryan said nothing.

"Why wont your answer me?" Robotnik snapped. Ryan did not even flinch. He just kept his eyeballs focused on Robotnik. "Don't you realize you're going to die? Don't you realize you have absolutely no hope of escape? Huh? Do you? Why won't you talk to me?"

Ryan said nothing.

Robotnik was furious now. He reached on the table and grabbed what looked like a scalpel with some kind of a miniature saw blade and a motor on it. Robotnik got directly in Ryan's face with the device and pressed his thumb on a button on it, spinning the blade.

"You will tell me everything or I'll make you bleed it out!" Robotnik yelled. Robotnik brought the device down toward Ryan's leg. Fir the first time ever, Robotnik heard sound come out of Ryan's mouth, but they were just heavy breathing. Ryan panted harder as the saw blade moved down to his knee.

Suddenly, just before the blade actually touched the material of Ryan's pants, the door unlocked and was shoved open, emitting a loud creaking sound.

"Robotnik," Sleet called inside.

"What?" Robotnik shouted back impatiently without looking at Sleet. He froze his hand in place, with the blade hovering over Ryan's right knee-cap.

"You've got a phone call," Sleet responded. There was a pause. "He said it was urgent."

Robotnik paused for a few seconds. His first response was deactivating the device. He placed it back on the table, spun on his heel, and headed to the open door.

"This better be important," Robotnik rudely said. "Dingo, stay with Ryan. Don't kill him, okay? We cannot robotosize a dead body."

Robotnik and Sleet walked down the hallway, leaving Dingo standing at the open door where Ryan sat.

**10**

In a separate room full of communications equipment, Robotnik was led to one of the radios. Sleet picked up one of the radio phones that was off the hook and held it to Robotnik.

"It's Stealth-Bot 27," Sleet told him. Robotnik took the phone out of Sleet's grip and placed it to his ear.

"Stealth-Bot 27, this is Robotnik. It better be good," Robotnik said in his same rude manner.

"Stealth-Bot 27 to Robotnik, I have good news. Queen Aleena has been spotted," the robotic voice over the other end said.

Suddenly, Robotnik's face dissolved from angry to pleased. "Queen Aleena? Are you telling me Queen Aleena is found?" Robotnik asked.

"Roger."

"Did you catch her yet?"

"No, I reported to you first. I wanted your permission first."

"Oh, good. Where is she?" Robotnik asked.

**11**

Ryan sat impatiently in the interrogation chair. He had his plan all thought up while in his cell. Memorized all the codes, all the passages, locations of weapons, and he is now in the situation to execute his plan. His escape begins now.

First, Ryan shook wildly while making extensive sounds while drooling. He made choking sounds from his throat and vibrated his limbs loudly so Dingo would hear.

Sure enough, Dingo heard Ryan jittering out of control. Dingo may not be intelligent in the long run, but he knows when someone is having a seizure. The large orange creature ran inside, leaving the door open behind him, to check on Ryan. Dingo could not let Ryan die or they will not have a human to robotosize. Dingo placed his hand under Ryan's chin and forced him to look at his eyes. That was when it hit Dingo.

Ryan rammed his knee in Dingo's crotch. Dingo keeled over singing a muffled opera tune. Guess it goes to show that even cartoon characters can get hurt in the groin. Next thing Dingo knew, Ryan wrapped his legs around Dingo's neck and squeezed hard on it. Unlike in the movies, it is not possible to break someone's neck with your legs, but it is possible to render a person unconscious. Ryan squeezed his thighs together hard to cut off the oxygen supply to Dingo's brain. Within seconds, Dingo felt light-headed and dropped. Due to having an extremely huge muscle build, his weight dropped and slipped out of Ryan's leg grip. Dingo lay on the hard floor unconscious.

Ryan then bent over his head down to Dingo's belt where the handcuff key was. He gripped it with his teeth and yanked it off of his belt. So far, Ryan has looked at cartoon characters, touched them, touched the grounds and structures, and now he has put his mouth on a cartoon object. His adrenalin to escape did not make him notice that bit of detail though.

Ryan slipped the key into the keyhole of his cuffs and held it in place there. He then used his two fingers to turn the key and the cuff released him free. Ryan was free out of the chair.

**12**

Back in the communication room, Robotnik was in all smiles after hearing the news on the other end, completely unaware of what has happened in the interrogation room.

"Good, just stay out of sight while I get a battalion of SWAT Bots there. I want to personally lead the capture. Speaking of which, I got to get back to another person I captured," Robotnik said. "Keep me informed on any updates."

Robotnik hung up the radio phone and motioned Sleet to come with him. Robotnik and Sleet started walking back to the interrogation room to find Dingo no where in sight. Worse thing was the door was closed.

"That Dingo is dumber than a sack of rice," Sleet growled.

Sleet gripped the handle to the door but it would not turn. He whipped out his key to the interrogation room. However, the key would not even go into the keyhole. Something was in the hole preventing the key from getting in.

"Open the door, Sleet," Robotnik said impatiently.

"I'm trying, but the key won't go in!" Sleet replied. Sleet gave up and decided to find out what the problem was. He bent down on his knees and looked in the keyhole. Sure enough, there was a piece of metal in it, almost like a folded-up paper clip.

After a growl from Sleet, he reached in his gear and pulled out a tiny magnet. Instantly, the piece of metal slid out of the key hole and attached itself to the magnet. Impatiently, Sleet slid the key in and unlocked the door. After he threw the door open, they were shocked to see the empty chair, a missing torture tool, and an unconscious Dingo lying on the floor.

Sleet dropped to his knees next to Dingo and patted his face.

"Dingo! Dingo, wake up!" Sleet yelled. Dingo slowly came about and looked around.

"Oh, my head hurts," Dingo moaned.

"Something else will hurt if you don't tell me where the man is," Sleet growled pointing to the empty chair. Dingo soon noticed and grew worried.

"Whoa, he's gone, Sleet," Dingo announced. Sleet and Robotnik replied by giving Dingo a look that says 'no shit.'

**13**

Meanwhile, Ryan was running back to the check-out department desk where all of his gear is locked away. In Ryan's hand is the scalpel device Robotnik was going to use to torture Ryan with before being called away. The blade has a chip missing, which is where he got the metal piece to slip in the keyhole.

Ryan ran to a large metallic door where Cyrus' robotosized father was behind. He panted and caught his breath at the door before banging it a few times. There was no answer except the opening of the door. Naturally, Cyrus' father opened the door. In a second, Ryan grabbed the half-robot half-lion, body slammed him, and pinned him to the wall.

"You move, you die, so sit down and stay where you are, got it?" Ryan harshly whispered. Surprisingly, the robot nodded. Ryan threw him to a chair and used the handcuffs he kept with him to chain the robotic lion down.

After Ryan locked Cyrus' father to the chair, he used the scalpel device to remove a panel underneath a super computer on the desk. Once he cut away the thin metallic panel, he threw it to the side revealing a whole forest of wires in different colors. Ryan was amazed at seeing Robotnik's technology was very similar to Earth's. In this case, that was a good thing. Ryan used the tool to cut away a few wires and was picky as to not touch certain others.

After that, Ryan ran for the locker with his bag in it. He remembered the combination. 10 left, 20 right, and 9 left. Once he turned the lock, it clicked and sprung open. Inside was his green bag untouched since he last saw it. He grabbed the strap and flung it over his shoulder.

Just as Ryan stepped out of the room, passing the chained robot-lion, he noticed Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo running down the hall after him.

"There he is!" Sleet called out.

Immediately, Ryan whipped his arm back and tossed the scalpel at them. Unlike in the movies, people do not toss knives and it never goes to where anyone wants it to. The three bad guys ducked when they saw the blade being flung at them, only for it to hit the floor, spin, and roll towards them. However, when they looked back up, they realized Ryan's goal was not hitting them. Ryan's goal was to get Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo to duck their heads and take their eyes off of Ryan. It worked. When they looked back up, Ryan was no where to be seen.

Robotnik knew it did not matter. He and the two bounty hunters ran to the department desk. There, they noticed the lion chained to the chair. Now they know what happened to the handcuffs from the interrogation room. Robotnik ran to the radio on the desk.

"SWAT Bots, we have a security—" Robotnik began to say when he realized he did not hear his own voice over the PA system. Robotnik clicked on other channels but each one is dead. "Sleet, check the system."

Sleet first noticed that the metallic plate has been removed. When he shoved it aside and looked at the wires, he noticed most of them were cut.

"Robotnik, he disabled the systems," Sleet said, but his tone of expression was more fearful than that.

Upon hearing that, Robotnik dropped the radio and started fiddling with the systems. He tried to sound the alarms, nothing. He tried to beep all SWAT Bots of a hostile presence, which did not work. He even initiated a lockdown, but that system was disabled as well.

"Sleet, can you fix this? Connect the wires?" Robotnik asked.

Sleet shook his head. "No, sir. Not only did he cut the wires, but he cut away a few inches in between them as well. I can't get them to touch together."

Robotnik growled.

**14**

Meanwhile, Ryan was casually walking down the corridors, keeping at alert of everywhere he goes and everything he sees. He has already equipped his Heckler and Koch USP sidearm in hand and is ready to use it should he encounter a SWAT Bot. Ryan kept passing the security cameras without fear because he also disabled the camera systems.

As Ryan walked, he kept snapping his head back, front, side, front, side, front, back, and back to front. Nervously, he kept moving forward down the hall to get back outside. Suddenly, as he turned a hall, he came across two SWAT Bots.

Instantly, Ryan whipped out his pistol and harshly whispered, "Hands! Hands up!"

At first, Ryan thought that, since they were robots, they would not feel hostile at being gun pointed. But this was proven wrong when both SWAT Bots raised their hands, keeping their imbedded laser guns aimed at the ceiling.

"You," Ryan said pointing at the SWAT Bot to the right, "put him on stand-by mode."

Slowly, the SWAT Bot did so. It pushed a button behind the SWAT Bot's neck and it collapsed to the ground.

"Okay, tell me where the exit is and I promise I'll put you on stand-by as well. Lie to me, and I'll come back and kill you both, helpless," Ryan growled. Ryan was right, the SWAT Bot could easily lead him deeper in the complex, but what if he found out on the way and retraced his steps back to here? What if Ryan came back to us right before any one of our fellow members could get to us? In any way, it is a lose-lose situation. So, the SWAT Bot pointed down the adjacent hallway to the left.

"Take the elevator to the first floor and follow the signs directing you to the lobby," the SWAT Bot told him in its robotic voice. Ryan glared at the robot. Since it was a robot, there was no way he could look at the facial signs of lies or the tone of voice.

"If I find out you're lying, I'll come back and kill you and your partner," Ryan replied harshly. "Turn around, hands behind your head, get on your knees, and cross your ankles." The SWAT Bot did so. Ryan quickly approached the kneeling bot and slammed his palm on the stand-by button clearly visible. The bot collapsed and fell forward on its face.

Ryan spun around and ran down the corridor at top speed. When he got to the elevator, he also noticed a door leading to the stairs. Ryan decided that the staircase was safer. He ran and rammed his body in the door causing it to open. He whipped his pistol around, pieing every corner. Once he was sure the stairwell was safe, he proceeded to run down the stairs, staying along the walls and avoiding being in the center.

**15**

Meanwhile, the three dictators, Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo, ran to the elevators. Dingo was constantly tapping his finger on the recall button.

"There are only two ways out," Robotnik said. "He disabled the automatic system controls, but we can still lockdown the place manually."

The elevator arrived and all three of them quickly pilled inside. Once in, Sleet quickly tapped the close door button and pressed the first floor button. The elevator slowly made its way down.

"Hurry, hurry, he saw our path," Robotnik whined to himself.

Just then, the elevator made a ding sound. They arrived on the first floor.

**16**

Ryan ran at a screaming pace down the stairs, bobbing his bag front and back several times. Soon, he saw a door with the number one labeled on the wall. The stairs continue down leading to the basement. Ryan quickly peeked through the small glass window and overlooked the lobby area. There are only a few SWAT Bots.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine," Ryan whispered to himself counting the bots. Nine should not be that big of a problem. He is doing his best to avoid a firefight, so he thought of staying along the side of the walls where it is dark. Then he will make a break for it in the large loading gate at the end.

First, Ryan released the magazine from his gun in his hand and saw he had eleven bullets in the magazine, plus one in the pipe, making it twelve. Ryan locked it back in the gun and stepped outside slowly.

Just as Ryan stepped outside, the elevator dinged right next to him. Instinct made him snap his head to the elevator. The doors slid open and out stepped Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo.

"Get back in there!" Ryan snapped while snapping his gun at them. All three noticed Ryan after he shouted at them. What Ryan did not realize was that he got the attention of the other nine SWAT Bots in the room.

Zap! A laser blast hit the wall barely missing Ryan.

Ryan was compromised. He had to quickly think of what to do and fast. He could turn and fire on the SWAT Bots, but that would make him vulnerable to Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo if they had weapons on them. On the other hand, he could fire on the three and then battle with the SWAT Bots, but that would give the SWAT Bots a few extra seconds to get a second chance to hit Ryan. Besides, if Ryan were to shoot the three enemies with their hands empty would be an act of terrorism by an inhumane execution rather than self-defense. Ryan decided to execute his only remaining option.

Ryan quickly jumped off the platform he was on and dove behind a pillar, taking cover. Sure, the SWAT Bots, and even the three getting out of the elevator, were firing on him, but because he dove behind cover increased his chances of survival.

The entire cargo bay room engaged in a battle. Ryan peeked his sidearm around and executed a blind-soldier's shoot. That means Ryan poked his gun around the corner of his cover and aimlessly shot his gun several times without exposing the rest of his body. At the same time, he could not looks down the sight so he just did a 'spray and pray.' This should never be used if hostages or unarmed civilians are in the room, but none were present so Ryan was okay.

Once Ryan's magazine was half empty, he paused and waited for the laser fire to stop. Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo quickly made their way to the control panel to lock the wide-open bay doors, sealing Ryan inside. Since they were running in the center of the room, the SWAT Bots held their fire temporarily. Ryan, hearing no more laser fire, popped out of his cover, aimed his sidearm down the sight with both hands, and burst a few rounds at the statue-still SWAT Bots.

One SWAT Bot fell back and broke down due to some components damaged by the bullets. Ryan moved side-to-side slowly while firing his USP, making his way to the large open bay door.

Little did he realize was that Robotnik ran to the control panel on the side of the door and activated it. The large bay door slowly came sliding down its hinges. Ryan jerked his head to the closing door and realized his chance of escaping is fading away. In a mad, suicidal-like dash, Ryan dove for the door, completely ignoring the laser pluses blasting behind him.

By the time Robotnik noticed Ryan was moving quickly, he already saw Ryan drop on his front and literally slide underneath the closing door just seconds before it slammed shut and locked. Ryan Perreault was now on the other side of the large fortress-like building commonly seen in the television series.

"Open the door! Open the door!" Robotnik yelled. He was not really giving the order to anybody, more like he was yelling at himself to motivate him to hurry.

**17**

Ryan, on the other end, rolled on his back with his Heckler and Koch pistol in his hands. He quickly noticed a control panel very similar to the one on the other end, inside the cargo bay. Ryan lifted his USP and aimed his right-eye down the rear sight, aligned it with the front sight, and allowed the front sight to line up with the control panel. Ryan focused on the sight, not the target, and squeezed the trigger. The control panel blew up with a small bang. The control panel tiny explosion was louder than the gun's bang. Speaking of which, Ryan noticed the slide on his sidearm was locked in place backwards, held by the little notch on the slide-release lever.

As Ryan slowly got to his feet, he reloaded his gun. He pressed his thumb on the magazine release button, which dropped the used magazine on the ground. Before it hit the floor, Ryan already reached in his pocket for another 15-round magazine and slid it in the gun's handle. As soon as it locked in, he pushed down the slide-release lever, which caused the slide to spring back forward with a clicking sound.

Ryan stood up and kept his aim on the large door for a while in case it was to open. After several paused seconds, Ryan grunted to himself, spun on his booted heel, and made a dash down the streets of Robotropolis.

**18**

Back in cargo bay room, Robotnik could not do anything with his side of the control panel. No matter what controls he did, the panel just sparked or did nothing.

"This isn't working!" Robotnik yelled.

"Robotnik, sir," Sleet interrupted. "You heard that bang as well as I did. We have to assume he hit the control panel."

Robotnik, being forced to agree, punched the wall angrily, leaving a tiny crack. Robotnik brainstormed as to what happened. First, he learned that Ryan was in the United States Army as an aircraft mechanic, and then he was told by Sleet and Dingo that their entire SWAT Bot squad was wiped out by Ryan, and then Ryan made a near-perfect escape managing to keep him alive. Robotnik suggested that Ryan was more than what he thought.

"Where does this man live?" Robotnik asked.

"Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, sir," Sleet responded.

"I want you to hack into the Feeding Hills Town Hall and get this guys profile. I want to know everything about him!" Robotnik demanded.

"Yes, sir," Sleet said as he ran out with Dingo following.

**19**

Down in the streets of Robotropolis, Ryan ran in jogging paces down the roads. His large man bag swung over his sounder waved back and fourth with each running step he took. As soon as he came to an alley, he sat down by a large dumpster and collected his thoughts.

Ryan could not believe was actually in a cartoon world. First he saw cartoon characters, and touched them, and even put his mouth around a cartoon object, yet they all felt real. Even he cannot believe himself he is standing on a cartoon floor which was created out of some artists' imagination with pens and paint. He looked up and realized the sky looks exactly the same as his world. The sky, moon, and stars look realistic, not cartoony like the rest of his surroundings are. At the same time, Ryan was very familiar with this world, the characters, and even what the bag guys are capable of.

"Okay, calm down, Ryan," he said to himself, collecting his thoughts. "Obviously, Robotnik knows I'm in the Army. I got very lucky. If he knew what my profession was, he would've added extra security on me. Damnit, once he finds out who I am, I won't be lucky next time."

Ryan realized he was talking to himself, but he did not care. So many things were happening to him. Now that he has escaped, he now knows where he needs to go next. Problem is, Ryan is unfamiliar with the layout of the city, so he must get lucky again.

Slowly, Ryan got to his feet after a small rest and started jogging down the streets again. In Ryan's life, he has seen scary things and been to scary places, but he has never been this scared before in his entire life.

**20**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

After three weeks, Ryan Perreault is still in Fort Benning, Georgia. Only this time around, he is currently flying high above it. Along with a plurality of the Airborne recruits with Ryan (a small few are gone), he is wearing his Army Combat Uniform with his combat gear. Attached to his gear is a T-10 parachute ready for release. Ryan and the rest of the recruits are flying 15,000 feet above ground level in a C-130 Hercules troop-transport cargo plane. A single man stood in front of the class at the back of the plane's section.

"For those of you who were in La-La-Land during the classroom lectures, this will be your final qualifying jump," the instructor shouted over the plane's loud drone engines. "I want each of you to land within the circle of cones marked by the green smoke. If you miss, don't try to quickly scurry in the circle before we notice you because we got instructors on the ground waiting for you. They will know your exact spot."

Ryan nodded and understood. He has spent three weeks here and each day was more challenging than the next. The first week was basically lectures, the second was about being attached to towers and dropping. This week, he has jumped out of aircrafts at low altitudes during the day. He made several jumps a day and enjoyed every one of them.

Each jump did get challenging. First was a low altitude jump on a bright day and he had to land in a circle that was over fifty feet in diameter. The altitudes slowly became higher, the environment became darker, and the circle in which Ryan had to land on became smaller. Ryan was lucky to nail each test well, but was still nervous each time. This was the last time Ryan had to jump. If he makes this, then he gets his jump wings and crosses one hurdle toward his ultimate goal. If not, then he goes back home or back to his regular unit, the 104th National Guard, 29th Light Infantry Unit which was just down the street from his house.

Ryan's thoughts were interrupted when the instructor pulled a lever on the wall of the plane. Soon, the back bay door of the plane slowly opened, revealing fast-moving clouds in a dark night sky. Down below, at about 15,000 feet, was a runway strop lit up with lights.

"First jumper, get ready!" the instructor called out.

Ryan was the first jumper, so he stood up and clipped his static-line cord to the release rope hanging off of the ceiling. A static-line is when the plane deploys the chute for the jumper. When doing High-Altitude Low-Opening (HALO) jumps, the jumper himself is the static line. However, HALO Jump school was for specialized soldiers, who Ryan was not, so he gets the basic, but still effective and useful, airborne jump.

"Thirty seconds!" the instructor called.

There was a long pause. Ryan remembered his training. Control his cute with soft slick motions, keep his knees tight together and bent, once he is within five feet of the ground (which he realized comes up faster than what movies display) flair his chute by pulling on the reins hard, hit the ground, turn his body ninety degrees in the direction of his movement, and then roll. In a real-life situation, he would also have to bury his parachute, but that would be a waste of equipment for future Airborne students.

"Stand by," the instructor said again. This meant that he was about five seconds from jumping.

Ryan kept his eyes fixed on the lights above the open cavity of the plane. They were like a traffic light, red, yellow, and green. The light is on yellow, meaning the jump should be made in five seconds. It felt like longer until the light buzzed and flashed green.

"Go!" the instructor shouted.

Ryan dashed forward and leaped head-first out of the aircraft. He felt the static-line break away, releasing his parachute. The cute opened and Ryan stopped with a jerk in a vertical upright position. He felt a quick back draft of the planes prop-blast behind him. In a second, the wind was gone and the loud drone of the plane stopped as well. It did not fade away, it just seemed like it stopped all together. Ryan felt like he was never on a plane in the first place, and all evidence of the C-130 behind him was gone.

Ryan kept his eyes fixed on the fast-incoming ground below him. He was a slight hair to the left of the runway, so he gave the cutes right rein a tight pinch yank and shifted to the center of the lit runway. He soon saw green smoke and a series of traffic cones in a circle around it. He carefully aimed his chute to land in the center of the cones.

What felt like seconds was over. Ryan flared his chute and made a PLF (parachute landing fall) right in the center of the cones in the green smoke. He soon found out that the smoke came from a smoke grenade already discharged on the ground.

Ryan stood up and looked around. He saw an instructor rush to him on the runway. He turned around and saw other Airborne recruits landing in their coned circles as well. Ryan turned his attention back to the instructor who stopped right in front of him.

"Perreault, right?" the instructor asked.

"Yes, sir," Ryan replied.

"Outstanding, Perreault. Your parachute landing fall and overall grade was satisfactory, good job. Remain here until called back."

The instructor turned and walked up to the other recruits who landed right after Ryan. Ryan, however, sat on the ground in pure delight. He now realized that he passed the jumps. Throughout the three weeks that he was in Airborne school, he was giving good comments about his work and performance. Although he was not 100 sure he passed the school, he felt more confident in himself that he passed the whole thing. With the awaiting results, Ryan is one step closer to his achievement that only a small few could get.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	3. Rendezvous and Preparation

**CHAPTER 3**

**Rendezvous and Preparation**

**1**

Far away deep in Robotropolis lays an underground base. Containing it are three hedgehogs. In the living room is a green hedgehog named Manic. Manic looks very much like his older brother, Sonic, except his fur is green, and he has a wild spike hair do on the top of his head. His attire includes an orange vest, fanny pack, spiked bracelets, and he left ear is double-pierced with two round gold earrings. Around his neck is a medallion shaped like a drum set.

Manic can be difficult but he is very loyal to his cause. One look of him can define him as a punk, whereas he is really a soft-spoken gentleman. Loyalty is truly on his side, he will always place the mission before himself against fights with Robotnik. While not fighting Robotnik, he is a drummer of the rock band 'Sonic Underground.'

Manic is currently playing on his drum set while looking at drum sheet music. He's playing a soft moderate beat. Soft and sensitive enough for other residents in the house to concentrate on their own work. That all ended when his older brother, Sonic, walked in.

Sonic the Hedgehog, a blue hedgehog with an electric guitar around his shoulder, walked in the living room carrying a dolly with a huge amplifier in tow. Sonic and Manic were born on the same day, but Sonic was born at leased ten minutes earlier. Around Sonic's neck is his trademark medallion shaped like a guitar.

"Yo, bro, you don't mind if I practice here," Sonic said while plugging in the amplifier in the wall outlet. He then slid the guitar over his shoulder and aligned his fingers on the chords.

Manic stopped playing. "Uh, actually Sonic, I do kinda mind because I'm prac--"

Before Manic finished, Sonic played his guitar really loud. He was playing heavy metal type of rock, and it was annoying the hell out of Manic.

"SONIC! TURN IT OFF!" Manic screamed after his sheet music was blown away from the amplifier's strong wind and his hair is being blown backwards.

Sonic, ignored Manic (or probably can't hear him), continued playing his guitar. He did guitar dance moves as his guitar music was blasting the place.

"TURN OFF THAT GODDAMN GUITAR!!!" Manic screamed.

Sonic continued to play.

Manic gave up and he got off his drum set. He started walking to the amplifier to turn it off. But the more he walked closer to it, the more the amplifiers sound was blowing him backwards. It was like Manic was trying to walk hard into a huge strong electric fan. When Manic was close to it, the amplifier was blowing him backwards with his sneakers skidding across the floor making marks.

Manic got a grip and walked faster and closer to it. Then his whole fanny pack unbuckled and flew backwards off of Manic. It hit the wall and it stuck there by the wind.

Sonic kept on jamming at his guitar not noticing Manic.

Manic walked on when he tripped and fell forward. He grabbed onto his drum set, which was also being dragged. Manic held onto his drum set in a horizontal position by the amplifier's strong blasts. Suddenly, Manic's shoes and socks slid right off his feet like a hot knife threw butter.

"Stupid older brothers!" Manic yelled to himself.

Slowly, Manic got back on his feet (literally) and walked harder to the blowing amplifier. Then his arms were blown backwards and his head too. His two earrings slipped out of their pierced holes. Then his whole vest slid right off along with his gloves. His spiked bracelets slid off too and they were blown backwards towards the pictures. The spikes on the bracelets hit both of Manic's eyes in the family portrait.

The wind blew Manic around at 180 degrees, forcing his back to face with strong amplifier's winds. Quickly, he saw the portrait with his bracelets stuck in the picture's eyes of Manic.

"Holy, talk about keeping your eyes pealed," Manic said to himself. With that, Manic's drum medallion slid right off his neck and it stuck to the wall too.

Sonic kept on jamming at his guitar. Manic slowly walked to Sonic, and without Sonic noticing, Manic slid off Sonic's guitar medallion. Manic put on the guitar medallion and his feet were at a Sonic speed blur. Manic, at Sonic's speed, ran to the amplifier.

The medallions that Sonic, Manic, and their middle sister wear contain special powers. Sonic is able to run at high speeds with his medallion, their sister Sonia can perform tornado attacks, and Manic can create earthquakes. Manic slid on Sonic's medallion and obtained his power to run at high speed.

Sonic played his heavy metal guitar music rapidly. Until suddenly, it wall all silent. When Sonic plucked a string, it did not make any noise. Sonic was confused. He looked at the amplifier and noticed a very pissed off Manic starring at him with his thumb on the off switch.

"Uh, hi Manic," Sonic said nervously.

Manic just walked to Sonic and grabbed his neck. Manic held Sonic high and held him to the wall.

"You idiot! Who needs Sonia to do that Super Twirl Twister thing when you could just play your guitar with an amplifier that is over a million watts! You do that again and I will personally pierce your ears with my teeth! Got it?" Manic said angrily, teeth showing.

Sonic looked scared. "Fine, sorry man." Manic let go of Sonic and instantly shown a bit of sorrow for his anger. Manic looked up to Sonic. Not only was Sonic his older brother, but he was also like his best friend. He looks up to Sonic as an influence and, as reckless as Sonic may be, he can also be a good example toward Manic.

"Next time, practice your acoustic guitar when I'm in the same room," Manic said with an apologetic sigh.

Then, in a flash, Sonia entered the room with her laptop computer. Sonia was their middle sister. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic are triplets. Besides the fact that they have similar body shapes and facial features, they look nothing alike. Sonia's fur is pink with a whole head of hair and her attire is that of a purple skirt with a red shirt. Around her neck is a silver medallion in the shape of a keyboard. She is also the keyboard player of the 'Sonic Underground' band. She was born between Sonic and Manic, marking her as the middle child.

Sonia was also considered the most intelligent but sometimes stuck-up child of the triplets. She was raised in royalty and beauty, so she is not easily accustomed to getting down and dirty in missions against Robotnik. However, Sonia can be helpful with her high intelligence to when it comes to outsmarting the enemy.

"Guys, I hacked into Robotnik's computer. We've got a problem," Sonia said with her active laptop.

"You too?" Manic asked sarcastically looking at Sonic angrily. Sonia eyed Manic weirdly. Sonia then suddenly realized that Manic was not wearing any of his clothes.

"Manic, unless you have to go to the bathroom or take a shower, you have to keep your cloths on," Sonia said.

Manic just growled. He walked to the floor by the walls to get his stuff. Since the amplifier went off, everything that was sticking to the walls dropped except his bracelets witch got stuck.

Sonic approached Sonia and looked over her shoulder to face the laptop.

"So, what's old buttnik up to now?" Sonic asked. Sonic had a tendency to call Robotnik 'buttnik.' It is not original to call the enemy by hurtful named. During the Mogadishu raid in Somalia, the Americans called the militia 'skinnies' because of their lack of muscle and short heights.

"Something about... where's your medallion, Sonic?" Sonia asked. Manic called while getting his stuff.

"I have it," Manic said holding up Sonic's medallion from his neck. "Want me to heave it at you, Sonic?" Manic asked in a sarcastic laugh. Sonic could not help but chuckle at his question. Manic easily tossed the medallion and Sonic caught it in the cup of his hands.

"Anyway, take a look at this," Sonia said.

The three gathered around, even though Manic was putting on his fanny pack while keeping his eyes fixed on the laptop screen.

"It says that Robotnik made a portal called the Dimensional Matter Displacer. He can grab humans from the planet of Earth and bring them here on Mobius," Sonia said. Manic put on his vest while watching the screen showing the coordinates to the portal.

"Has anyone been captured from Earth yet?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, only one. It's a red haired man named Ryan Perreault. He plans to robotosize him, and if it works he'll get more humans!" Sonia said shockingly.

"Where is this boy Ryan so we can bust him out?" Manic said while bent over putting on his socks.

"He did the hard work for us. While this Ryan fellow was being interrogated, he escaped," Sonia said.

"Say what? Why would Robotnik want to interrogate anyone before robotosizing them?" Sonic said. Manic sprung up.

"Well, I did find Ryan's profile. Get this, he is named Staff Sergeant Ryan Perreault, United States Army," Sonia explained.

"Wow, a soldier boy? Can he fight?" Manic asked, thinking that an American soldier in their world is cool.

"I doubt it, Manic," Sonia replied. "He was just a mechanic, never saw combat, never fired a weapon outside of Basic Training, never been to another country. I doubt he'll be of any use to us as a fighter. Anyway, we got to find him, he escaped."

"To where?" Manic asked.

"We don't know. He could be somewhere out in Robotropolis," Sonia said.

"Well then let's find him!" Sonic said. He leaped into action and ran out the door.

"Sonic! Wait!" Sonia called but it was too late, Sonic was already gone. He zipped out of the underground rebel base and into the cities of Robotropolis.

Sonia closed her computer and ran after Sonic. Manic was hopping on one foot behind Sonia while tying his second shoe. He's nearly fully dressed now.

Sonia stood at the edge of the door worriedly for Sonic. Manic ran out and stood next to her while putting his medallion around his neck.

"Could you help me with me earrings, Sonia?" Manic asked. Without responding, Sonia took one of Manic's earrings and stared putting it in Manic's piercing hole.

"Where in this city could he be?" Manic asked.

"You know Sonic, he could be at a chili dog stand," Sonia asked getting ready to put in the second earring. Everyone on the planet knows that Sonic has a huge love-passion for chili dogs. He could eat an endless supply of them without tiring out.

"No, I mean Ryan," Manic asked.

"I don't know, I just hope he might be alright," Sonia said finishing with Manic's earring.

**2**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan Perreault stood in front of a long line of recruits wearing his Battle Dress Uniform in the digital pattern. The instructor who he met at the beginning of the course stood in front of Ryan. In his hand is a small piece of metal. It is the airborne jump wings. The airborne jump wings look like a parachute with two wings sticking out of the sides and curving up in an arch.

"Corporal Perreault, you are hereby granted with the U.S. Army's Jump Wings," the instructor said to him.

Ryan nodded and said, "Thank you, sir."

The instructor clipped the two pins underneath the front flap of Ryan's left pocket, right under the nametape that says 'U.S. ARMY'. Once the pin went in, the instructor snapped the two clips behind the pins to clip it in place. When Ryan was in Civil Air Patrol, one of his cadet officers used to call those clips 'damnits' because every time she dropped one, she says 'damnit.'

Ryan stood there proudly knowing he graduated as one of the highest of his class in Airborne Jump School. Only a small handful of the original recruits did not make it to this graduation. To those who did pass, most of them are going on to be members of the 82nd Airborne, some will go on to become Rangers. However, only a small few will pursue the dream Ryan was going on.

**3**

A few days later, Ryan remained at the Fort Benning training grounds for a bus arrival. He sat on the edge of an outdoor table next to a pickup stop. He wore his ACU digital BDU's and his duffle bag at his side. The jump wings on his uniform were now dark brown, the proper kind for his uniform he is currently wearing. He recently sent his uniform to get altered for his jump school graduation. On Ryan's sleeves is a tab stitched on that said 'AIRBORNE'.

After a few hours of waiting, a large white bus arrived at the drop point. It is already half-full of other soldiers on it. The bus stopped and opened its doors. Ryan grabbed his duffle bag and ran to the bus. Upon getting on, he noticed a bunch of the soldiers on it were either big muscle-built men. Sure, Ryan was bigger than some of them, but most were larger.

Ryan slowly walked down the isle as the bus doors closed and drove off. He came to a stop next to a man who was most likely the biggest built guy on the bus. Six foot four, bald, slightly tan and looks at leased five years older than Ryan. Ryan immediately noticed the tabs on his uniform. He was pretty much all of them. The tabs, from bottom to top, said, 'MOUNTAIN', 'AIRBORNE', and 'RANGER'. The patch underneath these tabs was a rounded square with two swords overlapping each other. Ryan knew this patch as the 10th Mountain Division. However, he was surprised to see that this man's uniform not only had jump wings, but also had a badge showing a sword with two extended wings on both sides, meaning he is HALO jump qualified. Directly above that was a badge shaped like a long rectangle with a musket encased in it. Around that badge is a wreath design. Ryan checked out the man's name tape and it said 'DAVIS' and his rank had four chevrons, three upside-down V's and one U underneath, making him a Staff Sergeant. Ryan got nervous when passing this Staff Sergeant Davis who sat next to the window with an empty seat.

Suddenly, Davis looked up and noticed Ryan. Ryan tried to hold in his little fear of getting snapped at by the strongest man on the bus. Suddenly, to his surprise, Davis smiled at Ryan. He grabbed his own duffle bag off of the seat next to him and placed it on his lap, leaving a space open for Ryan.

"Want to take a seat?" Davis asked. Ryan slowly grinned and nodded. He sat down and placed his duffle bag on his own lap. "I'm Staff Sergeant Robert Davis," he said extending his hand. Ryan gladly accepted it.

"I'm Corporal Ryan Perreault," Ryan told the gentleman. They released their hands. "I can't help but noticed your insignias. You were a Ranger?"

"Still am," David said with a chuckle. "Yeah, I've had a lot of experience in the combat fields. My father was a Marine, so I grew up learning military stuff. I studied hard and worked hard all my life to get to this goal. I can't help but notice all you got is an Airborne tab."

"Yeah, I just came out of Airborne school. Unlike you, I never saw combat or have any other outside experience."

"It's scary. Coming from a guy like me, it can get scary."

"Well, I sort of know. I was an MP. I made barracks raids before, but I never actually shot at anybody."

"My buddy in Basic went on to be an MP, so yeah, he told me what it was like. But nothing compared to what we are bout to go through."

"No shit," Ryan chuckled. "Did your parents support your decision to join the Army?"

"Not at first, but I told them the benefits and they agreed to it. You?"

"Exact opposite. My parents banned me. No matter how many times I told them good things about the Army, it felt like I was talking to a brick wall. They never heard me, it's always a one-sided conversation with them. So, I told them I was going away to a computer camp after high school." Davis nodded knowing where this was going to lead to.

"But you went to Basic instead?"

"Yup. I graduated top of my class and even made Expert Marksman."

"I hope so, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

Ryan and Davis chuckled at that. It was true, every person on the bus was an Expert in marksmanship, which was one of the prerequisites.

"However, my parents were thrilled when a lot of great things happened to them just because of my enlistment. Went I told them I wanted to go down this path, they were reluctant at first. But when they found out that only 20 will pass, they decided to give it a go, probably thinking I won't make it."

"Yeah, but that just proves they don't want you hurt."

"I know, but I want to do more with my life. So, I chose this. And, hopefully, I'll be able to prove them wrong by becoming one of the 20 to pass, and I wish you the best of luck, Sergeant."

"Thanks, but call me Robert," Davis replied with a toothy grin.

The bus slowly rolled its way out of Georgia state limits and on its way to North Carolina. The entire bus trip, Ryan made new friends on the bus as well as Davis.

**4**

_PRESENT DAY_

Ryan, deep in the heart of Robotropolis, kept on fast walking down the streets. He kept his eyes fixed everywhere and his two hands tightly gripped on the gun. Every step he took, his long red hair waved every time he snapped his head around, looking at roofs, windows, alleys, and cover places in case anyone were to show up.

"This will be a lot easier if I had a team," Ryan said to himself.

He stops at the edge of a ruble building and stood there for a while. Slowly, he let himself sink down to rest again. His olive drab man bag dropped behind him and he let himself lean against it like a back pillow.

Ryan slowly closed his eyes and tried to remember happy memories. Well, happy memories to Ryan, but many people could disagree. He frowns knowing he is not in those places he wished he was in. He is a huge Sonic fan and he would like to meet Sonic and the gang, but he also wished he was either flying in a helicopter or running miles through the desert carrying 50 pounds on his back.

Suddenly, he heard the hover crafts of two vehicles approaching. Ryan snapped his head and saw them coming. They are moving slowly, as if they were searching for something or someone. Ryan immediately assumed he was the target they were looking for.

**5**

Not too far away, Sonic sped down the streets leaving a blue blur trail behind him. Trailing slowly behind him is Sonia riding at high speed on her pink motorcycle. Hovering above them is Manic zipping through on his red and white air board.

"Sonic!" Sonia shouted. "Search bots over there!"

Sonia pointed to them as they approached down the street. The three triplet hedgehogs made their way toward the bots.

**6**

Ryan crouched and waited patiently for the vehicles to pass. He could avoid them all together or ambush them. Before trying to make up his mind, he heard what sounded like a low-flying fighter jet approaching. Immediately, he knew what it was. Sonic has arrived. His heart raced, he was about to met Sonic the Hedgehog face-to-face in real life.

Sonic and his siblings stopped behind the two SWAT Bot vehicles.

"Hey, bolt brains! Over here!" Sonic called.

Ryan heard his voice. Slowly, Ryan peeked over and saw Sonic, Sonia, and Manic for the very first time. Well, sort of, he saw their shadowy silhouettes. In a second, the three split up and took different routes.

The two hover vehicles stopped and the doors opened. To Ryan's surprise, only four SWAT Bots exited the vehicles. He was expecting more. One of the SWAT Bots seemed to be giving orders to the other three.

"You two, circle around and head them off. You, stay here in case they double-back," one of the bots ordered.

Two of the bots got in one of the hover vehicles and drove away. The SWAT Bot that gave the orders ran off in the opposite direction. The last bot stood in the center of the road, next to the remaining vehicle, with his back turned to the hiding Ryan.

Ryan took this opportunity. He holstered his sidearm and pulled out his knife. Ryan got up and quickly ran the short distance behind the SWAT Bot. The bot heard Ryan coming and turned around. When the bot tried to aim its weapon at Ryan, he grabbed it with one hand and stabbed the bot with the other in the side. The bot short-circuited a bit right before Ryan pulled out his knife and stabbed the bot in the back of its spine. Surprisingly, the bot went offline and fell forward.

Ryan ripped out his knife and slid it back in its holster. He then pulled out his USP sidearm and slowly approached the road down to where the vehicle went.

**7**

The SWAT Bot leader slowly curved its way through an old ruble building. Its heat sensors were picking up large life forms in the building.

Earlier, Sonia and Manic quickly dove behind a piece of ruble to fire on any bots that approach. Unbeknownst to them, the SWAT Bot was slowly approaching them from behind.

**8**

Down the street, Sonic zipped to a stop in the middle of the street in front of the oncoming SWAT Bot vehicle.

"Yo, bolts for brains! I'm over here!" Sonic called out in his cocky attitude.

The SWAT Bot vehicle quickly aimed for Sonic and started speeding down the street. Sonic just stood there, yawning, and tapping his foot. Unaware to him, Ryan was approaching the street from the left side. He had his gun ready for the incoming vehicle. He figured Sonic might be able to take care of it, but what if he caused the vehicle to go out of control and then end up hitting him.

Suddenly, Sonic's eye caught Ryan's fluffy red hair. His full attention was now on Ryan. Sonic saw Ryan Perreault for the first time.

"Huh?!" Sonic grunted. Ryan looked over and, for the first time ever, saw Sonic the Hedgehog. At the same time, he heard the hover vehicle approaching. Ryan was the first to notice it. Sonic was still focused on Ryan for a second, thus Sonic would get hit. Ryan could not take that chance, so he took action.

"Get back!" Ryan shouted. Almost instinctively, Sonic noticed the approaching vehicle and dove out of the way, knowing he was too late to perform a Sonic attack on it. Sonic jumped and rolled away.

As soon as Sonic was out of the street, Ryan ran in the middle of the street in Sonic's place and fired a burst of rounds at the approaching hovercraft.

The bullets impacted through the glass and destroyed the SWAT Bot driving the craft. Ryan quickly stepped out of the way as the vehicle skidded off the road and crashed hard into a building.

**9**

Sonia and Manic, still hiding behind the ruble in the abandoned run-down building, looked at each other confusingly. They heard crashed and laser blasts before, but they never imagined they would hear the sounds of gunfire in Robotropolis. Sure, they heard the sounds before, but not in this case.

"Was that gunfire?" Sonia asked.

"Beats me," Manic replied.

**10**

Just as Sonic was about to zip to it, he saw Ryan cautiously approach it with his gun raised. He pied the corner and saw that the driver SWAT Bot was dead as well as the passenger. Three down, one to go. First, Ryan turned and approached Sonic, still with his gun raised.

"Hands up! Let me see your hands!" Ryan shouted.

Sonic could have fought back, but he knew Ryan was not going to try to hurt him, he was just careful. Slowly, Sonic raised his arms in the air and faced Sonic.

"Are you that man Robotnik caught? Ryan Perreault?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not going to answer that," Ryan told Sonic. He could not be sure if Sonic was bugged or not. Sonic was not, but Ryan had to be sure. "First, lead me to your siblings."

"I will, but first, can you lower your weapon, man? I'm not going to hurt you," Sonic said with a slight sweet tone. Ryan nodded and lowered his weapon to the low-ready position. "My sibs are over here."

Sonic ran, not at super-sonic speed, toward the run-down building. Ryan followed.

**11**

Sonia and Manic stayed hidden in the abandoned building waiting to ambush a SWAT Bot. Little did they know was that the lead SWAT Bot was approaching them from behind. The bots had orders to capture the hedgehogs alive to be robotosized. This meant he had to shoot a stun pulse on them, grab them, and rocket away toward the main hall building to prevent grip escapes or rescues.

Just as the SWAT Bot aimed its weapon at the unknown Sonia and Manic, two gunshot bursts echoes the building from behind the SWAT Bot.

Instantly, Sonia and Manic snapped their heads and saw the SWAT Bot. At the same time, they saw Ryan with his gun raised at the bot, which was losing balance. Soon, the bot fell with a loud clank to the ground. The building was silent. Sonia and Manic stared up at the tall five foot ten man with his Army camouflage pants, black T-shirt, an olive drab man bag, and a Heckler and Koch USP sidearm in his hands. Standing next to him was Sonic.

Slowly, Sonia and Manic got out from behind the ruble and approached Ryan. Ryan, after being sure none of them were imposters, holstered his gun and smiled at them. He was in a state of mental shock that he was meeting Sonic, Sonia, and Manic for the first time in real life. He kept his posture and face, but inside he could not believe he was in direct contact with the famous blue hedgehog himself, completely created by the mind of a Japanese man, Yuji Naka, in 1991.

"Nice shooting," Sonic said.

"Thanks," Ryan said. "I'll answer your question now. Yes, I'm Ryan Perreault. And you are Sonic, Sonia, and Manic."

"Whoa, dude, you know our names?" Manic asked. Ryan responded with a nod.

"Well, who doesn't know you guys?" Ryan told them, not really a question.

"I can understand a Mobian, but you're from Earth, are you?" Sonia said.

"Well, this might be hard to explain but I'll try," Ryan said. He took in a deep breath and tried to explain to them about his world and their cartoon. "On my planet, Earth, there is an animated television series called 'Sonic Underground' and you three star in it. Most of your adventures are on that show, like when you three broke into Robotnik's fortress to get the royal hedgehog book so you can get to Egypt and meet your ancestor," Ryan said, "I am one of your fans."

"You know about that?" Sonia asked.

"And you're a fan of us?" Manic asked.

"Yup, me and over 10 million people on Earth. I know a lot about you three. I know about your mother Queen Aleena, the Oracle of Delphius who gave the prophecy, Robotnik, Sleet, Dingo, your friends Cyrus and Trevor, Robotropolis which was once Mobotropolis, Sanctuary, the robotosizer, everything. I even know about your rock 'n roll band! Nice songs, guys."

"Well, thanks," Manic said.

"Ryan, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?" Sonia asked.

"Sure, but I need to rest. I had a very hard day," Ryan said.

"Sure, just try not to let go," Sonic said as he grabbed Ryan's wrist. Instantly, the four ran, drove and boarded away with Ryan in tow.

**12**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan Perreault finally reached his destination. A week ago, he made several friends on a bus, men like Davis, and was dropped off at a classified Army base in North Carolina, home to the American Army's best soldiers. He has been there for a week and all Ryan was taught was stuff he would have learned in Ranger School if he were to have attended it. Luckily, some of the recruits with him were Rangers, so they helped him out. Ryan was taught how to tie knots, make knives out of metal and rock, build fires, make traps, track for animals or humans, and to even cover up any trace of him passing.

One of his favorite days in training was weapons assembly. He was being taught how to assemble weapons. All his life, Ryan loved guns. While Ryan was in high school, he learned a lot about how guns were assembled and how they worked via the Internet. He even grew up with some friends with a military background, and they taught him some stuff about shooting. As soon as Ryan entered the fourth week of Basic Training, which was the rifle range course, he aced all the tests easily and was one of the few to receive the Expert Marksmanship Badge.

Today in modern warfare technology, the Colt M4 is the primary assault rifle made to replace the aging M16. The M4 is smaller, lighter, and more compact, has an adjustable butt stock, removable iron sight handle, and has picatinny rail lines to add attachments.

One of the only reasons Ryan signed up for re-enlistment after his first term was to hope to be a weapons expert. Ryan knew a gun inside and out no matter what kind anyone would throw at him. He can explain every detail while taking it apart and explain its function.

He spent 30 days learning basic and advanced survival skills. Next will be the ultimate test he will ever be faced with. This next test will determine if he is capable of the career path he wants.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	4. Identity and Selection

**CHAPTER 4**

**Identity and Selection**

**1**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan Perreault, along with over 80 other recruits, sat on a series of benches waiting for an introduction. All the recruits wore their ACU Digital pattern BDU uniforms including their caps with an insignia pinned on the front of them. It's nearly the beginning of summer, so the weather is getting hot in the North Carolina landscapes. Most of the recruits are getting warm due to their heavy uniforms and inability to roll up the sleeves.

A tall stern-looking man stood in front of the group. He wore Oakley sunglasses, a nearly pressed BDU uniform, and two silver bars pinned on his cap, ranking him as a Captain. Unlike Sergeant Davis that Ryan met earlier, this Captain does not look like he would be making friends with. What was worse was that the name tape on the Captain's uniform's breast has been removed. No one knew his name for, in a way, he does not exist.

"Welcome, gentlemen," the Captain announced, not sounding so pleased. "I assumed you are the unlucky ones who passed through the preparation course. Of course, you boys were aware that the preparation course will not guarantee you'll pass what you're about to go through. Now for the bad news. In the next 24 days, the instructor staff and I will mentally and physically bring out your stress limits and break you down. If you can handle it, you may proceed, but when you cannot, you'll go home. Gentlemen, welcome to Assessment and Selection!"

Ryan sat there with the other recruits scared. Not only was this Captain scary, but he noticed the several men behind him looks unfriendly as well. The men standing behind the Captain looked to be Master Sergeants or Sergeant Majors. It is hard to tell what their rank is from a distance, but he can tell these guys have had more experience than his own age.

At the same time, Ryan was pleased to finally be here. He felt giddy like his first day at Civil Air Patrol. He was proud to be wearing a uniform and performing military-like tasks with those who are just like him.

"First off, I will explain to you about how much you won't pass. To those who don't know Sergeant Max Corsair, he came here in my regiment years ago. Corsair was 3rd Infantry, 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, and a 75th Ranger. Sergeant Major, tell us what happened to Corsair."

One of the Sergeants behind the Captain, a tall six foot five black man, mostly muscle, stood up and stared right at the recruits. He bore no sunglasses, because his own stair could bring even a mighty man to his knees.

"Corsair was shut out of this program after two days!" the Sergeant Major announced in a booming voice.

"Thank you, Sergeant Major," the Captain said kindly to him. First time the Captain used his normal-speaking voice. He turned back to the recruits. "I cannot guarantee you boys will pass this course, but I will say this. I see 80 of you, and I will guarantee that no more than eight of you will pass. You know what, if ten of you pass, I'll dress up like Bambi on graduation. Hell, if over 20 of you pass, I'll dress up like Bambi's mother! But only time will tell. We will test your skills to the max. We will break you down and make you cry. To those of you think this program is such a joke may leave now, you're not welcomed here. Anyone?"

No one answered, either everyone took the drill seriously or was too scared to answer.

"Well, we'll see now, won't we," the Captain announced. "Alright, report to the supply tent, grab your gear, and report to your barracks for inspection. Dismissed."

Ryan Perreault did as he was told, along with the other recruits as well. Instead of walking, they all made a massive run toward the large tent where their gear is waiting for them. Today begins Ryan's worst three and a half weeks of his life. However, at the same time, they will be the most rewarding weeks of his life.

**2**

_PRESENT DAY_

Deep in the metallic city of Robotropolis lays an underground base. The entrance looks like a large basement bulkhead and the interior looks like that of a mansion. Due to it being underground, there are no windows thus it looks like night under there 24/7.

Right next to the door, three blurs made a screeching stop. Sonic had a grip on Ryan's arms, which had his arms around Sonic like a bear hug.

"Okay, we're here," Sonic told their new visitor. To their surprise, Ryan stood up and shook some dust off of him. He seems to have been unaffected by Sonic's speed. Sonia and Manic remember the first time they were carried by Sonic while going at high speed. Both felt like they were going to be sick. As time passed, the two siblings got used to the feeling. Ryan, however, showed no effects to the high-speed blast.

"Wow, this is a nice home you guys got here," Ryan said admiring the layout. Manic, who seemed oblivious to Ryan's unaffectedness to the speed, walked next to Ryan and took his hand.

"Wait until you see how cool it looks on the inside," Manic told Ryan. The green hedgehog with the spiky hairdo led Ryan in the front door. Sonic and Sonia, still shocked by Ryan's strength, followed in.

Inside, Ryan released Manic's hand and gazed at the interior. He has seen this building before many times on the show, but was never actually inside of it.

"Wow, this is amazing," Ryan said in a gasp.

"Ain't it, bud?" Sonic asked.

"So, Ryan, you mentioned that we are part of a show?" Sonia asked. Ryan nodded in reply.

"It's a long story," Ryan said.

"Night's still young," Manic told him. It was true. Ryan was considered a night-owl and did most of his work at night. Ryan was led by Manic to a couch. He expected it to be hard as a rock and immobile, but instead the cushions actually formed around the shape of Ryan as he sat down.

"Well, you see, it's like this," Ryan began to explain, hunched over and fingers interlocked with each other. "On Earth, we have a cartoon called 'Sonic Underground' and you three are the stars of it. In fact, you three are the only ones to appear in all 40 episodes. Well, there are 25 episodes that were never dubbed in English."

"You mean this is a cartoon show?" Manic asked in shock.

"Well, not right this second, no, but most of your adventures are. And because of that, I know quite a bit about your histories. You three were born to a mother named Queen Aleena. After birth, Sonic was raised with mountain folks for years before being raised by Uncle Chuck. Sonia, you were raised by an aristocrat, and Manic, you were stolen by a guy named Farrell, thus explaining your thieving skills," Ryan explained to them. The three hedgehogs nodded in shock knowing he was right. "Anyway, it was a television cartoon that only ran for 40 episodes before getting cancelled, which was a disappointment."

"Oh, why did we get cancelled?" Sonic asked.

"Low ratings I assume. You see, your show's target audience was for seven-year-olds, but the only ones who actually watched your show are loyal Sonic fans, whom are all 15 to 20-year olds, including me. The audience wasn't aimed right, I guess," Ryan explained with a chuckle.

"That still doesn't explain how you got here," Sonic interrogated, but Sonia nudged him angrily.

"Sonic!" Sonia yelled. Ryan laughed at that.

"Relax, I had a whole lot worse done at me," Ryan told them. "I didn't choose to come here. I mean, I didn't even know it was possible. Sleet and Dingo kidnapped me and brought me here. They mentioned something about me being the first human to be robotosized. So, I had to escape. I was hoping to meet up with you guys, and I did."

"Which leads me to my next question," Sonic said suspiciously.

"Sonic!" Sonia grunted.

"No, it's alright, ask away," Ryan said looking at Sonic.

"I saw how you fought those SWAT Bots. And you, a regular human, has been able to escape from Robotnik's complex. Even us hedgehogs have a hard time accomplishing something like that," Sonic said to Ryan.

"What's your point?" Ryan asked.

"We actually read your file. You are in the United States Army, right?" Sonic asked.

"Of course," Ryan told him.

"How can a simple aircraft mechanic perform such tasks?" Sonic asked him. In response, Ryan fell off the couch laughing. The three hedgehogs stared at him as he rolled on his back in a burst of laughter. As soon as Ryan got back on his feet, he explained the truth to them.

"You guys got that file, too!" Ryan said in chuckles. "Robotnik thinks I'm an aircraft mechanic and so do you guys! Oh, man, dudes, the truth is, I never touched an engine in my life."

"But your file says—" Manic began to say.

"That was a mock file," Ryan confessed. With that, Sonic, Sonia, and Manic grew shocked hearing that. "That's right. That file and everything mentioned in it, besides the fact that I am U.S. Army, was false. It's a cover-up to hide my true identity and profession in case it slipped in the wrong hands. And you guys, as well as Robotnik, got my fake file as well."

"Are you saying you're not an aircraft mechanic?" Manic asked after a slight pause. Ryan shook his head still smiling. Thoughts were going through the three hedgehog's heads. First, they heard he wiped out a SWAT Bot squad, escaped from Robotnik's fortress, and even engaged in a firefight against SWAT Bots. At the same time, Ryan had shown little to no side-effects by being dragged by Sonic's high speed. This is not stuff that an aircraft mechanic is trained to do.

"Ryan," Sonic began to ask, "what are you?"

**3**

Back in the building of Robotropolis, Robotnik and Dingo are angry that Ryan escaped.

"I can't believe it. I sent my best SWAT Bots and still he got away. The hedgehogs would've had a tough time in this situation, but just a regular guy?!" Robotnik yelled.

"Well, maybe he's a super mutant," Dingo said stupidly.

"Dingo, he is no superman," Robotnik replied.

Upon Robotnik saying that, Sleet walked in angrily with a thick folder titled 'Perreault, Ryan'. The front of the folder has the Department of the United States Army seal on it.

"He's no Superman, but he's close to one," Sleet said angrily.

"Oh good, you got the man's profile," Robotnik said happily.

"Oh, he's more than some aircraft mechanic," Sleet said, "I didn't find his profile in Feeding Hills Town Hall, I found it at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.!"

"What?" Dingo asked. Sleet opened up the folder and tossed to Robotnik.

Robotnik took the thick folder and, cautiously as if it was a bomb, slowly fingered through to the first page. Immediately, he was stunned to see Ryan's true job profession. At the same time, it explains everything so well.

**4**

Sonic, Sonia, and Manic stared at Ryan with eyes open wide, jaws dropped, and limbs dangling off of their torsos. Ryan, after confessing them what his true profession was, stood there smiling and enjoying the looks on their faces. It was all silent until Sonia spoke up; repeating the same thing Ryan just told them seconds ago.

"Special Forces?!" Sonia shouted in shock.

Ryan, unaffected by Sonia's loud shout, just folded his arm across his chest and nodded.

"Dude, you're a Green Beret?" Manic asked in a normal tone. In this situation, Ryan would have told them that a Green Beret is the headwear. United States Army Special Forces is the true title to the unit. Ryan would be considered as a Special Forces Operator, not a Green Beret. However, to prevent confusion over a common term, Ryan nodded to Manic's question.

"That's right," Ryan replied. "I am a Green Beret. I assume you know about them?"

"Oh yeah," Sonia said. "We know a lot about stuff on Earth. This is amazing, guys; we got a real life Green Beret in our home!"

"It was an insane bitch to become one. I had to leave my family for 60 weeks to endure that harsh grueling training," Ryan told them.

"Well, sit down and tell us all about it," Manic offered, extending his hand to Ryan. Ryan accepted and took hold of Manic's hand. He led Ryan back to the couch in which they both sat together on it.

**5**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan has only been in Selection for a few days and already his limits have been pushed. He bored all of his gear, an M-16 rifle, and a heavy helmet on his head. Not to mention that his back gear weight over 60 pounds. He was sweating hard, though it was hard to tell with the black face paint smeared on him. The hot summer sun was also beating down hard on him. Ryan's determination to proceed, however, kept him in.

Ryan stood in a line with most of his recruits whom are all wearing the same gear as he is, and all of them are panting and exhausted, out of breath. Ryan took a look to the left and saw a bunch of recruits around one of the Sergeants. The Sergeant looked down at a disappointed individual.

"Sorry, recruit, but you failed the timed run, you're going home," the Sergeant said. The recruit, disappointed, tried to persuade him to stay.

"I had no idea I was being timed," the recruit said. "You never time me there was a time limit."

"I also didn't say there wasn't one either, right?" the Sergeant said.

Ryan gulped hearing that. He was relieved that, in his mile run, he was told he passed the time limit, which came to him as a surprise. No one knew they were being timed in these events. Ryan then turned his attention to the right and saw a recruit and the black Sergeant Major over by a spring scale. On the scale is the recruits gear bag and, by the looks on the Sergeant's face, he was not thrilled.

"What is this, recruit?" the Sergeant asked sternly. "Huh? 57 pounds? You were told to carry 60. As far as I'm concerned, you didn't have any weight."

Suddenly, the Sergeant reached down and picked up a heavy cinderblock next to the scale. He extended his arms and forced it in the recruit's arms as if he was passing a baby.

"That's between 65 to 70 pounds of weight there. You must carry that in your gear with you for three days everywhere except the mess hall and light out. Understood?" the Sergeant asked. The recruit nodded as he took his gear back.

Ryan sometimes asked himself what was he doing here. How could anyone be this cruel, unusual, and downright crazy? The instructor staff did drill in the recruits' heads that there are methods to their madness. This place Ryan was part of was already exhausting him.

"Perreault!" the Captain with no name shouted.

Ryan did not realize it was his turn in line. His attention was focused on the drama of what was going on around him.

"Yes, sir," Ryan snapped at the Captain.

"Okay, you two empty out your gear," the Captain ordered.

Ryan, standing next to another recruit, both took off their back gear and dropped it to the ground. Ryan and the recruit both opened their gear bag and started emptying what they had inside. They first pulled out a compass, a set of batteries, and a hand-held radio. Suddenly, the recruit by Ryan pulled out one envelope of an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat). Ryan, however, ended up pulling out three MRE packages. This caught the Captain's attention.

"Hold it, stop!" the Captain shouted. Both Ryan and the recruit froze. "Recruit Perreault, tell me what was on the gear list given to you this morning." Ryan grew a little worried, but tried his best not to show it.

"One glass compass, one set of triple-A batteries, one intercom radio, one MRE meal—"

"Stop!" the Captain snapped. "One MRE meal, so why do you have three?"

"An MRE is just one serving. You asked for a whole MRE meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner," Ryan told the Captain. He was worried he messed up and was going to be sent home. The Captain though about what Ryan said. After a pause, he spoke up.

"Recruit Perreault," the Captain said. Ryan got nervous but soon realized the Captain grew a grin. "You are right. Good job. Not many recruits can come up with that." Then the Captain turned to the recruit next to Ryan whom only had one MRE envelope. "You, however, I want you to find a 50 pound rock and add it to your gear list by tomorrow."

Ryan was relieved he passed that one bit, but was still shocked as to the methods of how Selection was treating him. This place is no joke! Here he was, within the boarders of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where only a small select few could pass into, and here he was receiving the training that these instructors went through. This place was hard.

This place was no joke!

**6**

Only one week into Selection has passed. One of the Sergeant Majors stood on the end of the road looking at his stopwatch. Suddenly, a scattered group of recruits started running up to them.

"Move it, it's almost been 40 minutes!" the Sergeant shouted in his booming voice. This was near the end of the recruits' five-mile run wile carrying their heavy gear and M-16 rifles.

Several recruits passed the Sergeant and stopped to take a breather.

"Don't stop! Walk around and keep your rifle high above your heads!"

The exhausted recruits did as they were told. Some of them spat out huge amount of gunk from the exhaustive running.

Not long afterwards, Ryan came running up to them. Unlike the others, he seemed to have good control of his breathing and pacing, but he was still sweating and panting madly. Ryan passed the Sergeant Major and immediately followed suit with the other recruits. He looked around and noticed most of the soldiers that he spent time with in Selection were gone. Most of them quit while others failed and were sent home. It has only been a week and already only about 40 of the original 80 recruits remained. Ryan was just relieved that he was still one of the 40 remaining. By next week, he knew only 30 or 20 will remain.

**7**

The whistle blew!

On the beach side of the flowing rivers are a series of black zodiac boats. At leased 30 of the Selection recruits started diving madly for the five zodiacs. Six recruits stood around a zodiac, three on each side.

Ryan, along with his group of six, grabbed onto a rope of the heavy 160 pound zodiac and heaved it up. Most of them were strained from the over-worked muscles. Eventually, they lifted it on top of their shoulders and started running down the side of the flowing river.

The Captain stood on a tall platform overlooking the recruits carrying the heavy zodiacs all along Fort Bragg.

As time passed by, one of the zodiac teams dropped their boat and keeled over from exhaustion. Ryan, carrying his, had to look back and see the disaster. He immediately noticed the Sergeant running over to them and yelling at them for breaking their equipment. After a few seconds, Ryan focused his attention forward to help his team.

About an hour later, the remaining boat teams arrived back at their staring point. Once they got their, they heard a whistle blow. Immediately, the recruits stopped.

"Gently put down your zodiacs," a Sergeant yelled at them from behind.

Ryan and his team grabbed onto a piece of rope bordered along the side of the inflated tubes, slid the heavy boat off their shoulders (most felt immediately relief one it was off), and gently placed it back down on the ground. As they were doing that, they heard a soft thud next to them. They looked over and noticed one of the six-man teams has accidentally dropped their zodiac when trying to lay it down. What was worse was that the Captain slowly approached them.

"The Sergeant Major said to gently put down your zodiacs," the Captain told to the team. Ryan and his team could not help but stare at them. "Tell me, what was so gentle about the way you treated my gear?"

Ryan cringed. The Captain was a tough cookie and he could not bear to see or hear what he would do to those recruits who dropped the zodiac hard. All he could think about right now is getting the feeling back in his shoulder.

This place was no joke!

**8**

_PRESENT DAY_

"He's a blasted Special Forces Operator?!" Robotnik shouted, slamming the thick folder on the table.

"Yes, sir," Sleet said. "A three-year veteran I might add. A Weapons Sergeant, he—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Robotnik snapped, where in reality he really did want to hear it. Slowly, Robotnik opened up the folder and looked through them again. "I just can't believe it. We managed to catch the only human who could resist my forces."

Robotnik read through his file again. He noticed Ryan did some time and served in Afghanistan for a little under a year before being reassigned to Iraq. The files also mention his awards, such as the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

"Uh, Robotnik, sir, we can always go back to Earth and pick up another human," Sleet suggested. "One with no service record."

At first, Robotnik was going to agree to that, but realized Ryan's skills and abilities. Robotnik could alter his robotosizers to remove the individual's free will but keep in their previous skills. He figured this young man, this Special Forces Operator, could be a very useful ally with him against the hedgehogs and the freedom fighters. This time, now that Robotnik knows of Ryan's true background, he will be more prepared for him next time.

"No, Sleet, I want him," Robotnik said. Sleet and Dingo were shocked hearing that. "I want him. I wanted him robotosized, and that's just what I'm going to get. He would make an excellent lackey for me. Imagine a Green Beret on my side; the resistance just cannot win." Sleet started to understand what Robotnik was getting at. Dingo, however, just stood there dumb.

"Ooh, that's perfect, Robotnik. This will be a crowning achievement," Sleet said hideously while rubbing his hands together.

"Uh, Robotnik," Dingo said, "how are we going to get him? If he's a Green Beret, he can never be found if he doesn't want to be."

Robotnik got angry at Dingo's obvious remarks, but at the same time he was right. A Green Beret is an expert at cover and concealment. They could be within feet of someone or even in the same room without ever knowing they were there. Sometimes, they do not have to try to hide. They are masters at blending in with society. A simple hobo on the street begging for change or someone selling newspapers at a stand can possibly be a Special Forces Operator with concealed firearms. Even in a city full of robots, Ryan could still find a way to blend in or never be found, even with heat radar.

Suddenly, Robotnik had an idea. He had already planned an auction at the royal ball a week ago. He can use that auction as a way to draw out Ryan. The hedgehogs will be at the auction as well, and they will be forced to bring Ryan with them, knowing they cannot leave him alone in risk of getting re-captured.

"I'll hold my auction as planned. I want all available SWAT Bots to hold a perimeter around the building. We can get him from there," Robotnik advised.

**9**

Meanwhile, at the Underground base with the hedgehogs and Ryan, Ryan was explaining to the triplets about him.

"I saw everybody running to safety as S.A.S. rescued the prisoners. My unit was dispatched to hold the exterior perimeters of the prison camp while the Osprey's were sent in to recover them. As soon as the prisoners were loaded on the helicopters, I spotted an enemy with an RPG, that's a rocket-propelled grenade, and aimed for the helicopter. I aimed my M-4 at him, stared down the Eel sight, and squeezed the trigger. The guy jumped and fell backwards. We were soon returning back to base in the humvees. When we got back to base, I was awarded the Silver Star," Ryan explained to them.

"Dude, that was awesome," Manic said surprised.

"Yeah, you could say that. I mean, how else can I explain my abilities when I escaped," Ryan said pointing to his camouflage pants and black T-shirt tucked in it.

"But aren't the military the ones who try to kill people and break into people's homes?" Sonic asked.

"Actually, a lot of people get it all wrong. The military are people who do their best to serve and protect the country. They're not mean at all. I have some friends who are in the military and we talk great with no arguments. One of my best buds used to be in the Marine Corps," Ryan said.

"Really?" Sonia asked.

"Yeah. Just to let you know about breaking into peoples houses, the military does that to grab bad people. Besides, we like to think of ourselves as life-savers, not life-takers. That's what we are, we don't shoot anybody unless yourself or someone else's life is threatened or if the mission is threatened. Like when I popped that guy with the rocket. If that Black Hawk was destroyed, the prisoners wouldn't get rescued, so I had to nail him. Understand now?"

"Yeah, we get it," Sonic said.

"And besides, only an eighth of the military are the ones who go on the front lines in combat. The rest have simple everyday jobs such as doctors, radio operator, driving instructors, or whatnot. Please, don't take the military wrong, they're actually nice and they would like to talk to anybody. They're nice. I'm in the military, and I'm talking to you three like a prep," Ryan said smiling.

"Yeah, but I heard that Boot Camp is pain twisting and harsh and everything!" Manic said.

"Actually, I enjoyed Boot Camp. I like showing off my strength either pushing or running. Crawling under barbed wire is fun. It's more mental than physical. The only bad thing is the instructors getting in your face and yelling at you. I had a tough time handling that, but I got used to it. Other than that, Boot Camp was fun," Ryan said smiling, "and don't worry about the instructors. As much as they yell at you outside, inside they really care about you like your parents."

The three smiled and nodded.

"The military are good people. That's basically what I was implying on," Ryan said. "I just wished my parents agreed. Every time I explain the good things about the military, they ignore me and only believe their side of the story."

Then they heard a buzzer in the other room. Sonia stood up and approached what looked like a small computer screen. Ryan knew what it was because of his fandom of the show. It was a television phone. Sonia turned on the screen and blinking on was a young adult male mink. His fur is yellow and his hair is long, almost misunderstanding him to be female. His male British accent gives it away that he is indeed a guy.

"Hi Sonia, I just wanted to tell you about that aristocrat auction and party at the Robotropolis ball. Are you still available to come?" Bartlby asked.

"I'd love to," Sonia said.

Bartlby then looked over Sonia's shoulder and noticed the tall red-headed man sitting on the couch.

"Who is that?" Bartlby asked looking at Ryan.

"Oh, his name is Staff Sergeant Ryan Perreault," Sonia said.

"Hello, Bartlby," Ryan said waving at the mink. Though he did not much care for the character, he was still amazed to meet him.

"How did you know my name?" Bartlby asked over the communicator.

"Long story. I heard about this aristocrat auction and party. Are we invited or something?" Ryan asked.

"Well, I don't know. You are a human after all. Sonia, is he like a friend of yours?" Bartlby asked.

"Sort of, we just met," Sonia said.

"But he's cool," Manic said.

"Well, alright. See you at the ball," Bartlby said as the screen turned off.

"Son of a bitch. That's got to be a Robotnik auction," Ryan said.

"Well, it probably is," Sonic said looking up at Ryan. Ryan was tall, but not too tall compared to the three. Sonic's height came to right about Ryan's elbow since Ryan was 5' 10".

"Bartbly said this was an aristocrat party. Sonia is NOT an aristocrat anymore since she became an outlaw. Maybe Robotnik told Bartlby he could take us, which may cause you three to bring me there. Knowing I cannot be left alone in fear of recapture. Robotnik is planning to catch me at the party!" Ryan said. The triplets were amazed at how he was able to think like that. Special Forces Operators are masters at thinking through problems. Most of their work is actually mental, not physical.

"So, what do you want us to do?" Manic asked.

"Nothing. I'm going to the party. I'm going to make sure Robotnik sees my strength and he'll be scared to try to catch me again. Let him get scared of me," Ryan said.

"Ooh, good one, Ry-guy," Sonic said smiling.

Hearing that made Ryan quiver in sadness. His mom always called him Ry-guy on Earth and still does. Hearing that made him miss Earth, his family, his life, his friends, and his job.

"Well, I better get some sleep," Ryan said sadly walking to the bedroom.

The three shrugged not knowing what his sad reaction was all about.

Ryan took a rest on the underground base's guest bed. He could not believe what was happening to him. Here he was in this cartoon world. It was scary, yet awesome at the same time. His emotions kept getting mixed up wildly. He was scared not knowing if he will succeed against Robotnik. Worse, Ryan never knew if he would be able to get back home. So much has happened to him recently. Three hours ago, he was in his living room watching television. Now, he is actually in this world. Despite all of that, he was still able to get some sleep.

**10**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

After almost three weeks into Selection, only about 15 to 20 recruits remain. One of them is Ryan. A handful of the recruits stood in front of separate tables with an assortment of M92 sidearm parts. The Captain, still wearing his Oakley sunglasses, paced back and forth in the small room, causing his boot steps to echo.

"You will have 30 minutes to assemble your five sidearms while blindfolded," the Captain announced.

Upon saying that, the recruits, including Ryan, took their blind folds and slipped them on. They look more like the blindfolds that people use to sleep, not like rags that must be tied around someone's head.

"Begin!" the Captain shouted. Soon enough, the recruits felt their way through on making the weapons. Most of the tiny details, like the screws and the pins, are already assembled, since those take good close yes to make. The bulk of the sidearms are what needs to be assembled.

After thirty minutes, only one recruit is still finishing up his weapons. The Captain blew the whistle. The one recruit still unfinished was forced to stop.

"Remove your blind folds," the Captain told them. The recruits did and were shocked to see what was laid on the table in front of them. Each table had seven sidearms. They were told to make five. The one recruit was asked to leave, where he will soon be discharged and sent home.

The Captain approached a table next to Ryan's and stared down at the recruit sitting next to Ryan.

"Recruit Harr, tell me what the directions were," the Captain said staring at him with those identity-hiding sunglasses.

"We had to assemble our five sidearms in 30 minutes while blindfolded, sir," Harr replied.

"So, why do I see seven?"

"I don't know, sir."

"Harr, are you confident enough to have assembled five sidearms?" the Captain shouted that. Harr looked nervously at the Captain. Finally, he gave his honest answer.

"No, sir."

Then the Captain looked over at Ryan.

"Seems like you fucked up as well, didn't you, Perreault?" the Captain asked sternly at Ryan. Ryan, however, knew the trick. He was taught it during the Preparation Course weeks ago.

"I did not, sir," Ryan told the Captain.

"Then tell me what the directions were?"

"Assemble our five sidearms in 30 minutes while blindfolded, sir."

"Then why do I see seven?"

"Because these are my five sidearms. Five sidearms, plus my two backups for repairs or emergencies, sir," Ryan casualty told the Captain. There was a pause and Ryan looked nervous. Did he get it wrong this time?

"Correct, Perreault, you passed," the Captain said while grinning. He turned and left the table. Ryan felt a sigh of relief. He was doing well. But how long will it last?

**11**

Only a few short days remain until Selection is over. Ryan was one of 14 still remaining. In this course, Ryan was completely alone as he carried his heavy gear on his back, war paint on his face, and a training M-16 in his hands. His goal was to track through the forest to his destination, which was a camp hidden deep in the woods. However, the instructors are constantly wandering around and recruits will have to start over again if spotted. This is where Ryan was experienced at. Stealth was his strong point.

Several times, Ryan was almost caught. He heard footsteps approaching many times, but was always able to find a hiding spot before being noticed. One time, so far, Ryan was hiding in a bush as an instructor passed by. The instructor came with an inch of Ryan and did not even know it.

As daylight slowly broke into night, Ryan was alone though he kept getting the feeling that he was being watched or followed. It is good to always assume someone is around rather than assume no one is around. Ryan took this advice to caution. He spent the entire training exercise not saying anything.

Soon, Ryan approached what looks like a wide-open gate leading to the camp. Double-checking, Ryan looked at his analogue map and aligned his compass on it. Sure enough, he made it to his destination. However, at the same time, with the lights flashing the entrance, it looked too easy to pass this test. Ryan learned the hard way that nothing in Selection was easy. He figured anybody who would go through the front gates would fail. He decided to go in a back way.

Ryan encircled the camp to find a way in. Sure enough, there was a blind spot between two barracks tents. Ryan jumped the fence quietly and slowly snuck his way inside. He peeked around the corner and saw a hummer parked on the side of the barracks facing the camp entrance. He saw two silhouettes inside, must be the Sergeant Major and the Captain.

Slowly, Ryan approached the hummer from behind, staying in the rear and side-view mirror's blind spots. Once he got close enough to actually touch it, he quickly zipped to the driver's side door and peeks in.

"Hello," Ryan said grinning. He was right, the Sergeant Major was in the driver's seat and the Captain was in the passenger seat. Both were freaked out by Ryan's appearance.

"Perreault! Why did you do that?" the six foot five black Sergeant Major shouted.

"Simple. You would have expected me to approach from the front gate. I came in from the rear, Sergeant Major," Ryan told him. The Sergeant realized what Ryan said and nodded.

"Well, in all honestly, Perreault," the Sergeant began to say, "if you came in from the front gate, you still would have passed. None of the instructor out there spotted you. However, you get extra credit by approaching silently from behind, Corporal."

"So, I passed?" Ryan asked. He knew he did, but he just wanted to hear it.

"Passed? Dude, with your performance, you should already be deployed. If this was a real op, the Captain and I would already be dead." For the first time ever, he heard the Sergeant Major and the Captain chuckle. "Now, how about you head in those barracks over there and help yourself for something to drink."

"Yes, Sergeant Major," Ryan said with glee. He approached the barracks and entered in.

**12**

On day 24, Ryan Perreault was one of the nine recruits sitting around a picnic table enjoying a barbeque dinner. The instructors acted friendly now. Even the Captain removed his sunglasses to expose his blue eyes to the recruits. Though his name is still classified, he was pleased with the nine around him.

Ryan stood up to get a drink from the refreshments table. On the way, he ran into the Captain.

"Perreault, glad I bumped into you. I wanted to talk with you," the Captain said.

"Yes, sir?"

"I want you to know that you will be graduating top of your class."

"I am, sir?" Ryan asked in shock and glee.

"That's right. By the end of this week, you will receive higher honors to proceed to any training course of your choosing."

"But I will still go through the Q-Course, right, sir?"

"Of course," the Captain said with a chuckle. "I meant after the likely event you graduate the course. There are such opportunities like Foreign Weapons, Close Quarters Battle, Ranger School, and what not. Your choices and as many as you want."

"Thank you, sir," Ryan said. He extended his hand and the Captain quickly shook it.

"In a few days, you and the other recruits will be going off into more restricted areas of Bragg to receive your Q-Course training. I hope you do well, Perreault."

"I'm sure I will, sir," Ryan said. Ryan then stood at the position of attention and gave the Captain a salute. The Captain returned it and dropped it. Ryan dropped his and headed back to the table.

Ryan knew that the hard part was not over, but at leased he will no longer be questioned about his determination or not. By the end of the week, his true Special Forces training will begin.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	5. Party and Q Course I

**CHAPTER 5**

**Party and Q-Course I**

**1**

Manic woke up early the next morning. He was always an early-riser of the group. He slowly made his way into the kitchen, stretching his arms out as he walked. The only attire he bore was his medallion and his socks.

As soon as Manic stepped into the kitchen, he caught an unfamiliar sight. Ryan, awake and active, stood over by the window watching the horizon sky slowly turn from dark blue to a lighter shade. Ryan still wore his camouflage pants and black T-shirt, but the shirt is not longer tucked in and looks like he slept in it. Plus, his boots are gone, revealing his dark green wool socks.

"Ryan?" Manic asked.

Ryan turned around and saw him. He immediately grinned.

"Hi Manic," Ryan replied.

"You're up awful early."

"I couldn't sleep. Besides, I'm trained to stay awake. I also have the ability to keep myself awake no matter how tired I feel."

"Lucky you. Is all that because you're a Green Beret?"

"Yes and no."

"I'm just still shocked that a real Army Special Forces soldier is standing in our living room. It's just that you don't really look like one with the hair and shadow on your face, dude."

Ryan chuckled at that. He turned on his heel and slowly approached Manic. He grabbed a chunk of his think and puffy red hair and said, "This? When you're in Special Forces, you are allowed to grow out your hair so you don't stand out."

"Whoa, that's awesome, man," Manic said in his surfer lingo. Ryan took a seat on the couch.

"Is everyone else still asleep?"

"Yeah, they're snoozing. It's just you and me."

"Say, Manic, can I have a chat with you?" Ryan asked, patting the seat next to him on the couch. Without answering, Manic took his seat next to Ryan.

"What is it, man?"

"To be honest, back at home on the show, you are actually a fan favorite."

"I am?"

"Yeah, including me. I mean, how many opportunities will I get to actually interact with you for real?"

Manic replied with a nod and a grin.

"Tell me, Manic, what was your life like before you met Sonic? That was never really fully explained in the series."

"Well, I lived in the sewers with Farrell and all the other thieves. They taught me how to steal, how to fight, how to hide, and all this cool stuff. They said, out of everyone they taught, I was their number one student."

"Sounds like when I went through Selection."

"It gets scary some times. There are rats that carry diseases, you got to fight for your food, and you go to stay warm and find a place to sleep," Manic explained. "In the summer, it wasn't that bad because it was warm and there were a lot of great stuff to steal. But in the winter, it will get so cold, even in the sewers. It's been known for the homeless to freeze to death in the winter."

"Same on Earth. I live in a state called Massachusetts, and the winters up there are terrible. It will start to get warm, and then heavy snow will come. Sometimes, it will snow in the summer. There was one winter where snow didn't come until the end of January."

"Whoa, that's freaky," Manic said surprised. "What's it like being in the Army?"

That was a question Ryan had a tough time coming up with an answer for. Unlike in the movies, despite all the harsh training and tactical knowledge, it can get scary at times. The biggest advantage that American soldiers have are cutting edge technology that dominates over primitive-using forces, trust in team mates, bullet-proof light armor, and cross-coms. With the cross-coms, a soldier is able to use satellites to find hidden enemies. Even if an enemy soldier is hiding behind a door or a piece of rubble, the cross-com will see them. Hundreds of ambushes have been prevented due to the cross-com systems. Also, unlike in the movies where a group of soldiers are on a mission that lasts for days or even a week, a real spec ops missions lasts no longer than a half an hour. Get in, get the objective, and get out long before the enemy knew you were there.

"It's hard," Ryan finally replied. "I mean, I don't disrespect what they do or the importance of their job, but it can get hazy at times. It's rare, but I lost buddies of mine in the field. All good men."

"Is it really that scary?" Manic asked.

"Well, once you get past the fact that this is truly real, not really. Sure, there will be this pause where you tell yourself that training is over and this is a real operation. However, once you overcome that and focus on the mission, it just becomes like an everyday job."

"Ryan," Manic began to ask. There was a slight pause before Manic finally said, "have you ever killed anybody?"

Ryan paused.

Ryan was a Sergeant when he made his first true kill. He remembered a line that Jack Bauer said to Wayne Palmer on an episode of the television drama '24' where Jack said to Palmer, an ex-Marine, that 'there is a big difference between training to kill someone and actually having to do it.' In Ryan's experience, there was no truer statement than that.

**2**

Ryan was stationed in Afghanistan when his first kill happened. It was not his first mission, but it was his first mission where bullets were fired. He and five other Special Forces Operators were traveling in an Afghan native truck on a light evening with the clouds slowly turning pink. The mission was simple, infiltrate an enemy base camp, recover a laptop, and get out. It was planned to avoid a firefight.

Ryan and everyone else were dressed in sleeveless desert camouflage uniforms, Oakley sunglasses, and turbans. The weapons they carried were standard M4's customized with silencers and specifically made to carry 7.62 by 39 millimeter rounds to avoid looking like they are Americans.

The truck passed through the base camp checkpoint and the operators inside were surprised to see only five small tents and two large ones, one with an antenna. Once in, the six Green Berets, including Ryan, covered their faces with the turbans and exited the vehicle. The two commanding officers were talking to one of the Taliban officers on sight in the native Arabic language. During the conversation, the four Berets split up and approached each tent separately.

Ryan was lucky enough to find the tent with the laptop, but there were still problems. Inside, surrounding the laptop, were three terrorists, each armed. Ryan entered and stood inside. None of the three terrorists ever gave Ryan a second thought for being in the tent with them. He slid the sunglasses off his face and took a look at the laptop being worked on by one of the three. Suddenly, one of them approached Ryan and tapped his shoulder.

"Can I help you?" the Taliban soldier said to Ryan in Arabic. Fortunately for Ryan, Green Berets always had contingency plans for such little events. He quickly noticed a large radio on the table by the laptop.

"Uh, I was assigned to inspect the communications equipment, sir," Ryan replied, speaking Arabic.

"It's fine," the terrorist snorted at him. "Please leave."

"My orders are to thoroughly check the radio stations and equipment," Ryan said back to him. Although Ryan's Arabic vocabulary was not top of the line, his accent was perfect. Ryan was known for speaking in near-perfect accents when speaking another language.

"Orders from whom?" he asked in Arabic, still resisting.

Ryan was not completely afraid of this guy. Ryan was five foot ten and this Taliban soldier was possibly five foot five, maybe even shorter than his sister. His muscle mass is also weaker than Ryan's. Alas, Ryan was outnumbered, there were two other men in there with automatic weapons, but one was on the laptop and the other was not paying attention to the confrontation. Ryan stared down sternly and looked at the tan-skinned bearded man with looks that can kill.

"I am not going to have my patience tested. My orders are to inspect that piece of equipment, end of story! If you have a problem, take it up with your commanding officer. He's out front," Ryan sternly said back to him, keeping his Arabic accent mean-sounding.

It worked. The Taliban man angrily spun on his heel and exited the tent, leaving only two remaining inside. It was getting dark, so Ryan had to move fast. He went to the large radio and pretended to inspect it. He began by making small talk about the laptop.

"Nice laptop, where'd you buy it?" Ryan asked, still speaking Arabic, trying to sound nice.

"It's not mine, it belongs to the camps," the Taliban guy typing on the laptop said. At leased he was being nice.

"Are you into computers?" Ryan asked.

"Not really, it's just my job to filter these codes. I do nothing else," the man's reply was.

Somehow, Ryan had to get access to that laptop. Since his intercom was still on, his other Green Beret operatives can hear his conversation and know that the laptop is in the specific tent. They figured that if more than one of them, the new visitors, enter in the tent with this sensitive piece of hardware, the base commanders would get suspicious. They decided to keep their distance and try to let Ryan handle the situation.

Suddenly, Ryan's luck expanded. The other terrorist left the tent, leaving only Ryan and the computer operator alone. Ryan could easily knock out the man, but what if someone was to walk in and see it. He cannot risk having the base alerted. He decided to further his excuse.

"Excuse me, sir, but this radio is connected to that laptop," Ryan told him. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take it for inspection myself."

"No," the man said to Ryan.

"Sir, I need to. I have to examine it through my filter machines back in the truck."

"Why don't you just bring it out in here?"

"It's too big and heavy. I have to take the laptop with me to the truck."

"Then you're out of luck. I'm sorry."

"Sir, my orders are to inspect the radio equipment. The radio cables are connected to the laptop, thus that makes it part of my inspection. I need to take it."

"My answer is no!"

This time, the computer operator started acting mean. Ryan was running out of options. His M4 was equipped with a silencer on it. He could threaten to kill him. Ryan took a few steps back, raised his rifle, and aimed it right at the Taliban member's chest.

"Get away from that laptop now!" Ryan ordered him harshly in near-perfect Arabic. Once the computer operator saw Ryan point the gun at him, he jumped up with a snap, knocking the chair he was sitting on over.

"What are you doing?" the terrorist whispered. Then Ryan made his mistake.

"I said back off from the fucking computer," Ryan whispered harshly, accidentally speaking in English. His American accent was easily recognizable. The operator's eyes widened as he slowly backed out of the tent.

"American," the man whispered in fear.

Ryan knew he was compromised.

"American—!" the computer operator screamed as loud as he could as he turned to run out of the tent. He was stopped short when Ryan's instinct kicked in.

Ryan still has his rifle aimed at the terrorist. In a snap, Ryan squeeze-tapped the trigger and three rounds burst, emitting three muffled snap sounds. All three bullets pierced the man's back and he dropped. One of the bullets hit his spine, which caused instant death.

Ryan Perreault stood there and felt cold. So much was going on through his mind. He kept telling himself, 'I just killed a human being.' He did not even know his name; all he knew was that he was the enemy. Suddenly he remembered a line from the show '24' where Jack Bauer said, 'there is a big difference between training to kill someone and actually having to do it.' Ryan understood now. It was like he caused a transformation on someone for the worst. The man he was just talking to is now instantly gone, gone forever, never coming back. He was someone's son, someone's father. This was nothing like the video games. There was no way he could restart and next time and do something different. He could have just popped the back of his knee or shoulder, which would have slowed him down. He did not even point his weapon at Ryan. However, Ryan did think about the plus sides. He knew this was going to happen, like getting an injection at a doctor's office. At the same time, Ryan killed one man to save his team. This terrorist was about to run outside and scream that there are American's in the camp. However, because Ryan shot and killed him, he just did what he was trained to do, save the lives of his teammates. That was when Ryan finally understood his job and what he did. Ryan did not kill this man, what he did was save five American lives, and now he can save hundreds more with the laptop. He finally understood that his training and guns saved more lives than it took.

Ryan finally came back to his senses. He holstered his rifle and grabbed the laptop. Ryan Perreault, after making his first kill, finally understood about life and death. He carried the laptop, under his uniform, back to the truck and asked the operators to held hide the body before the rest of the camp finds out. Just as the sun was setting, Ryan and two other operators covertly dug up a hole and dumped the body in to bury it. At the same time, another operator was cleaning up the blood, tracks, and the three shell casings from Ryan's rifle. The six Green Berets piled up in the truck and left the base without suspicion from the Taliban occupants. Along the way back to the base camp, Ryan kept thinking to himself about what he did and what if it was necessary. He knew it was war and that there will be casualties. Even though his detachment commander explained to Ryan that what he did was correct, he still felt uncomfortable about it. Luckily though, the pain decreased as time passed. Still, sometimes it came back to haunt him.

**3**

Ryan sighed remembering that incident. Manic's question did bring back the nightmare. It did come back to haunt him. Finally, to answer Manic's question, Ryan turned and faced Manic in a somewhat of a sad tone.

"I don't want to get into that, Manic," Ryan finally replied. Even though Ryan did not say yes or no, Manic knew what the answer was, and he knew how Ryan felt about it. Manic understood by nodding.

**4**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Three military hummers sped down the dirt roads deep into Fort Bragg, where only a small selected few are permitted to cross into the restricted areas. Ryan, sitting in one of the traveling humvees, stared out the window at the passing trees. They passed a sign labeled that all unauthorized personnel will be shot. Finally, the three vehicles came to a stop on a street with a series of classroom-like buildings, helicopter pads, and training grounds.

Ryan was about to experience his first day of the Special Forces Qualification Course. The vehicles stopped and opening the doors is a group of Special Forces Sergeants, all dawning their Green Beret headwears. The nine recruits that passed Selection, one of which was Ryan, exited the hummers carrying their duffle bags. They were led by the Sergeants to a large classroom.

Inside the classroom looked very high tech. Instead of desks, there were just chairs with an optional sliding desk pad mounted on the side. All of them have the desks retracted to look like normal chairs. In the front, on what looks like to be a stage, is a podium, a Colonel behind it, and a large film screen to display the images from a projector attached to the ceiling. The screen shown the Special Forces emblem; two Native American hunting arrows crossed over each other with a banner circling around them in the shape of a U. On the banner says the phrase: 'De Oppreso Liber' which is Latin for 'Liberate the Oppressed.' Already within the classroom are five other recruits sitting in chairs and their duffle bags resting underneath. These five were obviously roll-ins, meaning they were in the Q-Course previously but failed at something. Instead of being sent home, they are given another chance to redo the test.

"Welcome in, take a seat," the Colonel up front said. He appears to be an old but physically fit individual with a stern face. Despite his old age, he does not appear to have a single gray strand of hair on his head.

The nine soldiers took a seat in different seats. Ryan took a seat in the front row like he always did in school.

"First, I want to congratulate you nine for passing our Assessment and Selection Course. You have been given the rare opportunity to participate in out Qualification Course. This course will last 49 weeks and we will test your limits. Unlike Selection, we will no longer question your commitment for being here. Now, we will begin teaching you about being a real Special Forces Operator. The five that are already in here are roll-ins from the previous phases. They will be part of your regiment class."

Ryan sat there in his seat all excited. He was still feeling the sore pains of Selection in him, but he was in complete excitement for being here. He bit his lip to prevent from giggling to himself. The Colonel continued to talk.

"My name is Colonel Samuel Moss. For those of you who don't know me, I was a Special Forces Detachment Commander for over 20 years. I am a veteran of operations such as Beirut, Desert Storm, and Kosovo. You will go through the same training I went through. Now, we will not guarantee you will pass, that's up to you," Colonel Moss explained. "Now, the Special Forces Qualification Course is divided up into six phases. The first phase, which will begin after this lecture, will be a 13-week Individual Course. You will learn Martial Arts, how to use your weapons, cover and concealment, and plenty of physical training. After that, you will then be assigned to your Military Occupational Skills phase, which lasts for 15 weeks. All officers will become 18-Alphas, which is the Special Forces Detachment Commander and all Warrant Officers will become 180-Alphas, the Assistant Detachment Commander. For the enlisted personnel, the 18-Bravo is the Special Forces Weapons Sergeant, the 18-Charlie is the Engineering Sergeant, the 18-Delta is the Medical Sergeant, and the 18-Echo is the Communications Sergeant. The 18-Fox, Intelligence Sergeant, and the 18-Zulu, the Operations Sergeant, are reserved only for Senior NCO grades and must be earned, not taught."

Ryan nodded. He understood what each of those positions are. Because of Ryan's background and expertise with weapons, Ryan was sure to be an 18-Bravo. He was also aware that the Weapons, Engineering, Medical, and Communications Sergeants are always in pairs, two of each, a senior and a junior.

"Once you pass your MOS specialty, you will move on to the Collective Phase. There, you will be taught teamwork skills. You will use what you learned in the MOS phase to become an asset to you and your team. This phase will last for 14 weeks. After that, you will move on to the Language Phase, which will last for 4 weeks. During that time, not only will you learn a new language, but you will learn how to adapt in a foreign society and blend in. Once you pass the Language Phase, you will then move on to SERE. Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. If you can survive 3 weeks of SERE, you will become a Special Forces Operator and be assigned to an ODA, Operational Detachment Alpha, or better known as an A-Team. I wish you 14 men the best of luck on the upcoming lessons. Do a good job and make us proud. Hoo-ah!"

The entire class then yelled out a 'Hoo-ah!' to Colonel Moss.

**5**

_PRESENT DAY_

Just as planned, an aristocrat party and auction was being held at the Robotropolis Ball, just like in the episode 'Artifact.' All the aristocrats were there. Behind the stage were Robotnik, Sleet, Dingo, and a bunch of SWAT Bots. They looked out seeing everybody talking.

"We're still going to take their mobiums, right?" Dingo asked. Mobiums are a form of currency on the planet Mobius, looking no different than the American dollar.

"Yes, of course," Robotnik said.

"But then why did you send a different message to Bartlby?" Dingo asked.

"Duh, Dingo, if the hedgehogs have Ryan, then they would bring him here and we would catch him again," Sleet said.

**6**

Outside, it was just like Robotnik predicted. Ryan stood outside with Sonic, Sonia, and Manic. All three wore their usual clothes, Sonic in his gloves and red sneakers, Sonia in her pink and purple skirt, and Manic wearing his orange vest and orange sneakers. Ryan still had on his camouflage pants and black T-shirt with his Heckler & Koch USP sidearm clipped to his belt. Directly behind his back, just above his butt, clipped to his belt is his 50 Tactical Fixed Blade knife.

"Ryan, you sure about this?" Sonia asked.

"I'm fine. Trust me," Ryan said. "I want Robotnik to know what he is up against."

"But what if Robotnik, his goons, and a bunch of SWAT Bot's are in there ready to catch you?" Manic asked worriedly. Ryan just smiled.

"You obviously haven't seen me fight," Ryan said.

"How do you fight?" Sonia asked.

"You'll see," was all Ryan said. With that, the four heroes walked into the front door of the large ballroom.

**7**

In the corner of the ballroom was Bartlby talking to a few other aristocrats, a dog, a fox, a wolf, a badger, a cat, and a mink, all males.

"Well, there's Bartlby," Sonia said. The four walked over to him. Bartlby caught his eye on Sonia when they walked to him. The other aristocrats just stared at Ryan blankly. They were not expecting to see a human enter approach them, not to mention a human that is completely three-dimensional and all flesh rather than smooth and bright looking like a cartoon.

"Hi, Bartlby, glad you asked us to join," Sonia said.

"Thank you, my princess," Bartlby said kissing Sonia's hand. The boys, including Ryan, rolled their eyes and sighed.

"Who... or WHAT... is this?" the cat aristocrat asked pointing to Ryan.

"Guys, this is Staff Sergeant Ryan Perreault, United States Army," Sonia said holding up her palm in Ryan's direction. To Ryan's wishes mentioned earlier, she kept quiet about Ryan being in Special Forces. They were still unsure if Robotnik was unaware of Ryan's profession.

"He's a human from the planet Earth," Sonic said.

"Humans?" the wolf aristocrat said.

"We don't like humans on this planet. Why did you decide to come here?" the badger aristocrat asked harshly. Ryan was very used to being talked down, but Ryan felt no fear. Ryan always seemed unafraid when he is more built that someone, and even when he has a gun or knife to his side.

"I did not choose to come here, Robotnik kidnapped me and took me here," Ryan said harshly back.

"Oh no, not again with all this 'Robotnik is bad' crap," Bartlby said. "I can tell these three brainwashed you." Bartlby was an aristocrat, therefore was spared of Robotnik's evil tyranny. In a way, Bartlby was like a Catholic in Nazi Germany.

"Then explain to me why you think it's okay for him to capture and robotosize innocent beings, huh?" Ryan said back at Bartlby, who was about Ryan's height. Ryan was still taller, though.

"Oh, why don't you grow up and stop fighting Robotnik," the cat aristocrat snapped. Instantly, Ryan grabbed the cat's collar and held him closer to his face. It was in less than half a second! All the aristocrats stopped and saw their attention to Ryan.

"Why don't you grow up and get a pair of balls," Ryan said harshly back.

All the aristocrats in the room stared at him wide-eyed. The ballroom was nearly dead silent as everyone stared at Ryan, not only for his appearance but for his actions as well.

The badger aristocrat tapped Ryan on the shoulder. Ryan let go of the cat and looked at the badger.

"Hey, dick, you should never disrespect the rich," the badger growled.

"Whatchya gonna do? Spank me?" Ryan mocked.

Sonic and Manic smiled at all this. They never had the guts to tell off the rich like this.

"And besides, I know a lot about this planet more than your cock head does," Ryan said.

"Hey, we're gonna stop your attitude in less than a week, I guarantee it," the dog aristocrat said.

"Aww, then I guess I won't get to see you reach puberty," Ryan said smirking.

Sonic and Manic chucked under their breath. Sonia just sweated in fear.

"Look, I know more about Mobius than you, and I know a lot of people on this planet will like me and I won't let you aristocrats put up with it. So, if I want to stay on this planet, I'll stay. And if you don't like it, that's tough shit," Ryan said.

The dog growled and clenched his fists.

"I got your tough shit right here!" the dog yelled. He started to throw a punch at Ryan, but Ryan instantly grabbed it and threw a punch in the dog's gut. The dog lost all his breath as he fell backwards.

Ryan spun on his heel and slammed his fist in the badger's nose. The badger fell backwards over the refreshments table leaving a trail of blood from his nose flying through the air.

Ryan spun and did a spin kick in the cat's gut also knocking the wind out of him. He quickly grabbed a broken table leg and packed it across the fox aristocrat's face. Then he flipped the stick around and knocked the cat off his feet from behind. Ryan started using the broken table leg as a Martial Arts spear.

The wolf tried to claw Ryan but Ryan rammed the tip of the stick in the wolf's gut also knocking the wind out of him. He stopped and looked at the broken table leg in his hands.

"Cracked the leg from this table, that's not good," Ryan said dropping the leg.

The mink aristocrat was ready to claw Ryan.

"I guess I'll just have to use my hands then," Ryan said. He grabbed the mink's wrist and slammed his fist in the mink's gut. All the aristocrats around there were on the ground trying to catch their breath, or moan about their backs. The badger was holding his nose in pain, which was bleeding wildly. Ryan picked up the badger and threw him to the grounder closer to the other aristocrats on the ground.

"Ow! Ow! Ow, my nose! My nose!" the badger whined.

Sonic, Sonia and Manic stared at Ryan wide-eyed. However, the three hedgehogs were not completely surprised by Ryan's fight. All Special Forces operators, whether it be SEALs, Marine Recon, or whatnot, all operators are heavily trained in martial arts, specifically Krav Maga. Krav Maga is a type of Martial Arts developed for soldiers or cops, which teaches the arts of defense and respond with a life-threatening attack blow. In addition, what civilians are never taught, are covert quick-kills, such as sneaking up on someone and killing them without anyone noticing, even on a bright sunny day. Sometimes, Krav Maga will teach painful torture methods to keep an attacker down in case death to an individual will cause a mission failure.

Ryan looked at the three hedgehogs. The entire party was silent and staring at Ryan wide-eyed.

"Now you've seen me fight, was that good?" Ryan asked.

"Uh, wow," was all Sonic could say. Manic smiled and Sonia did a half smile. Ryan looked at Bartlby whom was shaking in fear.

"Next time, don't let your friends do all this to me again, okay?" Ryan asked. Bartlby just nodded his head in fear.

"Good, so, where's the refreshment table?" Ryan asked.

"You broke it with my friend," Bartlby said pointing to the table. Ryan saw it and chuckled.

"I wasn't thirsty anyway."

**8**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan has spent a few weeks in the Special Forces Qualification Course, where only nine out of 80 were able to get to. All fourteen recruits are inside of a large gymnasium with a set of mirrors on a wall and the floor covered with mats. They are all wearing light-gray sweat workout clothes and sneakers. Printed on the front and down the sides of their pants says 'ARMY' in black letters. On the back of their sweat shirts are their last names. Already, a ring of sweat is around the recruits sweat shirt collars.

Lately, Ryan has been learning how to fight. While in Civil Air Patrol, he received minor fight lessons from cadets. Also, one year on Christmas, he received a DVD set titled 'Delta SEAL Training Camp' which was a Martial Arts training documentary designed for Special Forces operators. Most of the stuff that Ryan was taught so far are not new to him, such as the step-and-slide, lead-hand punch, side-kick, and others. However, Ryan did learn a lot more new techniques which he knows will be useful. Overall, Ryan is giggling to himself because he is being professionally taught what he always wanted to learn.

Standing in front of them are a group of instructors all wearing their BDU pants, tan boots, and black T-shirts. One of the instructors approached the small group who has already rested.

"Okay, up next, we're going to teach you this neck-snap technique," the instructor announced. He motioned for another instructor to come to him, and he did. "Watch."

The two instructors stood at each other face-to-face in the fighting positions. One of the instructors, instructor 1, threw a punch, which was immediately blocked by instructor 2. Instructor 2 then jabbed instructor 1 with an elbow strike, grabbed the back of his head, kneed him in the gut, wrapped his arms around his neck, and slowly arched his head back. Instructor 1, with his lead locked, tapped his hand on the other instructor's leg, indicating that he felt pain. He was immediately released.

"Okay, let's show it again slowly," the instructor who gave the headlock said, same one who called the other guy over. They both performed the same technique slowly as the instructor explained what he did. "Block with your arm, jab with your elbow, the grab the back of his neck with a knee jab. Then, you got to force the victim down and wrap your arms around his neck. It's important to grab your other wrist because you can't snap anyone's neck with one hand. Well, there are ways to do it with one hand, but we'll get into that later. Grab your wrist, hold his neck, and slowly arch yourself back and look up." As he was doing it, the head-locked instructor tapped the other instructor, immediately letting him go. "Okay, so grab a partner and try that."

The 14 recruits quickly took a partner for them. Ryan tapped Davis for his partner. Ryan was pleased to learn that Davis was one of the nine to pass Selection, but it was not a shock because, not only was Davis a six foot four muscle-man, but his IQ and reflexes was incredible as well. Ryan and Davis took turns several times on the technique. Davis even said to him that Ryan seems to have the stopping power to take down someone like him. Ryan also had a knack for learning Martial Arts quickly, though Davis had some training and experience when he was younger and with the Rangers. Overall, Ryan was having the time of his life.

**9**

_PRESENT DAY_

Robotnik, Sleet and Dingo saw the fight and they too were shocked. At the same time, they were not surprised due to him being a Green Beret.

"Oh man, you never told me that man can do that," Robotnik said.

"What do you mean, I read it from his profile," Sleet said.

"I thought you were joking," Robotnik replied.

**10**

Sonic and Manic walked in the boy's bathroom alone.

"Dude, that guy was like Kung-fu man," Manic said.

"I just liked the fact that he beat up those lousy aristocrats," Sonic said smiling.

"That I give him credit for," Manic replied.

Sonic and Manic stood in front of two urinals.

"So, you think this guy can take on any of Robotnik's forces?" Manic asked.

"I hope so. He said they wanted to robotosize him as a first human," Sonic said.

"What else can he do?" Manic asked.

"Well, he did say he's was the team marksman for a time while with the Berets. You should have seen how he shot that bot vehicle approaching me," Sonic said.

"Yeah, and a sharpshooter," Manic said. "But can he play music?"

"Maybe," Sonic said.

**11**

In the ballroom, the stage lit up at Robotnik stepped on with a microphone. The lights dimmed and the auction was about to begin. Even Ryan stood amongst the crowd and watched him.

"Welcome to the Robotropolis Auction," Robotnik said. He held up a strange small green spherical object. "Our first item up for bid is this genuine, one-of-a-kind, unknown object. Anyone who doesn't bid would be considered part of the Resistance!"

Instantly, all the aristocrats shot up their hands yelling out numbers. Ryan sighed.

"Dickheads," Ryan said softly.

The dog aristocrat, after catching his breath from Ryan a few minutes ago, turned and looked at Ryan.

"What did you call us?" the dog growled angrily.

"Who asked you?" Ryan said as he slapped the dog across the face. The dog was knocked out and he fell to the floor. No one noticed it.

"Excuse me, I need to head to the girls' room," Sonia said, beginning to leave. Instantly, Ryan got an idea.

"Good idea," Ryan said, following Sonia. As he walked, he stayed low behind the aristocrats, making sure Robotnik did not see him. It was hard because Ryan, being three-dimensional and all-flesh, stood out easily.

Sonia and Ryan made it to the two bathrooms for men and women. Sonia walked in the ladies room and Ryan followed. Inside the vacant restroom, Sonia turned around after hearing boot steps following. She was shocked to see Ryan inside of the girl's bathroom, granted no one else is in there.

"Ryan, what are you doing here?" Sonia asked.

"If Robotnik's gonna search for me, I better be in a place where he might not suspect I'm in," Ryan said.

**12**

Robotnik handed the green thing to Bartlby as he walked on the stage.

"You got this at a bargain," Robotnik said. Bartlby left the stage. Robotnik looked around and noticed the dog aristocrat lying on the floor in pain. It looks like Ryan's work all right, but Ryan was not there. He turned and headed to the backstage.

"Sleet, Dingo, where's that guy?" Robotnik whispered harshly. Sleet and Dingo were hidden in the backstage with the SWAT Bots.

"I don't know. He was there a minute ago. Then he was gone," Sleet said.

"Well, find him," Robotnik said. He turned back to the aristocrat crowd to continue the auctioning. Sleet and Dingo quickly looked through the crowd of aristocrats but could not find Ryan.

"Look in the back rooms and I'll look in the side rooms," Sleet said. The two split up.

**13**

Ryan, in the girl's bathroom, climbed on the sinks to get close to the vent across from the men's room. He called in, "Sonic! Manic!"

In the boy's room, Sonic and Manic finished washing their hands.

"Hey! Sonic and Manic!" Ryan's voice came from the vents above the mirror. Sonic and Manic looked up at the vent. Immediately, they realized he must be coming from the other bathroom.

"Ryan?" Sonic asked.

"Listen, this place must be crawling with SWAT Bots. I want you two to come in the girl's bathroom with me," Ryan said.

"Say what?" Sonia yelled, not loud enough for anyone outside to hear.

"Trust me, no one will expect this," Ryan said. "Sonic, Manic, just come in the ladies bathroom. Be ready for a fire fight." With that, Ryan removed his USP sidearm and flipped the safety switch off. The safety switch also doubles as a hammer release switch.

"Wait, Ryan, I thought you said Green Beret's avoid a fire fight," Sonia told him. Ryan just replied to Sonia with a nod and a grin.

"I want Robotnik to know what he's up against," Ryan told her. "I want to break his moral and his hopes of victory."

**14**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

It has already been several weeks into the Qualification Course for Ryan. He seems to have mastered all the arts of hand-to-hand combat. He would have to. To pass this course, Ryan would have to be beyond human limit. Just like all recruits, he had to receive an equivalent of an A+ in all of his subjects. An A grade is a failing grade in the eyes of the instructors, and Ryan did not take any disadvantage of that.

As Ryan was acing all of his tests, he held a rubber knife in his left hand. Slowly, he crept behind one of the instructors, holding onto a fake Kalashnikov rifle. In an instant, Ryan covered the instructor's mouth with his right hand, hooked his arm with his left to prevent him from using his weapon, and sliced the rubber blade across the instructor's neck while pulling him backward, tripping him over his leg, and forcing him face-down on the ground. It was very quick and very silent. Had the knife not been rubber, Ryan's victim would have been dead.

"Good job, Perreault," another instructor said to him as he approached the two. Ryan helped the instructor back on his feet. "You had good smooth motion as you made your approach and you moved quickly, yet smoothly, when making the kill. Plus, you did an outstanding job by staying as quiet as you can. Hoo-ah, Perreault!"

Ryan nodded back to the instructor with a "Hoo-ah" reply.

Ryan had been learning the best parts of Martial Arts in the few weeks he has been at Fort Bragg. Best part is, most of the techniques he was learning would be banned in all Dojo's in the entire world for civilians, but Ryan was no longer a civilian. He was taught how to kill a huge amount of people and make it look like accidents or suicides. Ryan's favorite part was that it was not all defenses. The instructors taught him that, unlike civilians who only use their techniques when threatened, a soldier must always be the first one to strike and strike the victim when they do not notice! Ryan did learn the one important thing about military fighting; a real fight only lasts for two seconds. If a fight lasts longer than that, chances are you will lose.

**15**

_PRESENT DAY_

Sleet and Dingo met up back in the ballroom again. They have searched throughout the kitchens, the utility closets, backstage, and the basement. Ryan was no where to be found.

"I can't find them," Dingo said.

"We looked everywhere... except..." Sleet said. He turned his attention to the bathrooms.

**16**

In the ladies bathroom, all three hedgehogs and Ryan are inside. Manic stood on top of the stall walls and attempted to remove a metal shingle from the ceiling leaving to the vents. Manic was able to slide it out. He handed it to Ryan, standing by him, and slowly placed the grate on the floor to avoid making noise. While doing that, Manic was lead to a path in the vents. He grabbed on the edges and pulled himself up.

Once Manic was in, Ryan cupped his hands toward his front. Sonic stepped in his cupped palms and Ryan lifted him up in the vents. Sonic was in, and Ryan kneeled down to Sonia.

"Now, you know what to do, right?" Ryan asked her.

Sonia nodded.

"Entertain me, anyway," Ryan said, making sure she knew.

"They come in and I render them unconscious. Then I walk back out into the crowd and grab a cup of pink lemonade at the refreshments table," Sonia explained. Ryan nodded for her to keep going. "If I didn't or if something went wrong, I get some iced tea from the bar."

"Right, we'll be watching you," Ryan said. He then stood on the toilet and forced his way up into the vents, carrying the vent grate with him. Once Sonic and Manic pulled Ryan in the large vent, he snapped the grate back on.

The interior of the vent was a lot larger than in the movies, it was big enough for Ryan to crouch, which is what he did. Sonic and Manic, being only three feet tall, remained standing. Without saying a word, Ryan unholstered his sidearm, cocked the hammer back with his thumb, and proceeded forward slowly to create as minimal noise as possible.

**17**

Sleet and Dingo checked the men's bathroom and realized it was empty. Although unlikely, they figured Ryan would be in the ladies bathroom to avoid detection. The two tall bounty hunters entered in the female bathroom.

Sleet and Dingo noticed the ladies' room was empty. All of a sudden, the bathroom door slammed open and it knocked Dingo off his feet. Sleet turned around only to get hit in the face by Sonia's keyboard synthesizer. Sleet fell onto his back from the blow.

With both wolves unconscious, Sonia dragged them one at a time into the bathroom stalls. Once they were in, Sonia exited outside trying to act casual.

**18**

Ryan, Sonic, and Manic kept crawling through the vents right above the stage where Robotnik is. Ryan stopped and looked down through the grates at Robotnik directly above the stage.

"I see Robotnik," Ryan whispered.

At the same time, Sonic looked out one of the side grates out into the crowd. He immediately spotted Sonia walking through casually. That was the first good sign that Sonia is alright. Now, where will Sonia go to now?

Casually, Sonia approached the refreshments table. She grabbed a plastic disposable cup and used the ladle to pour herself some pink lemonade. Slowly, she started sipping it.

Sonic turned to Ryan and gave him a thumb up. Ryan nodded.

"Good," he said smiling. With his gun in his hand, he rested on his front and aimed down through the grate.

"Ryan! Are you nuts?" Sonic yelled quietly.

Ryan aimed down the sights of his gun. Through the rear sight, front sight focus, and the target. Ryan did not want to hit Robotnik; he was aiming for the floor. He squeezed the trigger and a gunshot rang out throughout the ballroom!

**19**

The loud gunshot rang through the whole building. It was loud enough to even wake up the unconscious Sleet and Dingo in the bathroom.

**20**

Immediately, all the aristocrats inside started running and screaming in all directions, most of them made their way to the exits. The only one to stay behind is Sonia. She was shocked by the sudden gunshot, but knew immediately what it was.

Ryan pulled on the hammer release switch, which is also the safety switch. The hammer clicked back in place and Ryan holstered it.

"Get ready to battle some SWAT Bots, guys," Ryan told Sonic and Manic. Before Sonic and Manic got a chance to reply, Ryan kicked the grate down, which landed on Robotnik, knocking his attention away. He sat on the edge of the vent and threw himself down.

Ryan fell on top of Robotnik. Robotnik looked up and saw Ryan coming. Before Robotnik got a chance to move, Ryan collapsed on him. As soon as they got up, Ryan punched Robotnik across the face a few times. Then he kneed Robotnik in the crotch. The two got up and stared at each other.

"I knew you'd come," Robotnik said. He swung his metallic arm to punch Ryan. Instantly, Ryan ducked the punch. He quickly got up and grabbed Robotnik's arm from behind. He twisted Robotnik's wrist causing Robotnik to scream in pain and fall on his butt. While still holding onto Robotnik's wrist, Ryan spun on one heel and kicked Robotnik in the face. Ryan let go of Robotnik as he fell on his back in pain.

The backstage curtain opened and out came a bunch of SWAT Bot's! Ryan immediately whipped out his sidearm with his right hand due to him being right-handed, grabbed Robotnik with his left, and used his left arm to choke-hold Robotnik. By the time the metallic robots aimed their weapons at Ryan, they paused once Ryan pointed his gun directly against Robotnik's weird-shaped head.

Ryan knew a hostage-situation would work. He remembered how those two SWAT Bots in the building acted when he aimed his gun at them. Instead of being mindless robots like they are and take a chance, they lowered their weapons. He knew these robots were smart, and they reacted the same way when Ryan held Robotnik at gunpoint.

"Stay back!" Ryan yelled. "Stay back or I'll kill him! Back off!"

The SWAT Bots responded by slowly stepping backwards with their guns pointed to the ceiling. Immediately afterward, Sleet and Dingo came running out of the bathrooms still in a slight daze. They did make out the image of Ryan holding Robotnik hostage at gunpoint.

Suddenly, Bartlby came running back into the building, with the auctioned item he had in his hands. He was obviously worried about Sonia, but was shocked to see the human holding Robotnik hostage and slowly inching his way down the side steps and onto the floor. Bartlby ran over to Sonia, whom had her attention on Ryan. Bartlby felt like he had to protect her from this ruthless vile man.

"Sonia, come on before he notices," Bartlby whispered as he placed his hand on Sonia's shoulder. Sonia shrieked at the touch. Immediately, Ryan turned and faced Bartlby.

"Bartlby!" Ryan yelled. Ryan noticed the device in Bartlby's hand. It was made of metal, had an opening at the top with a ring and a metal flap to the side. It was a grenade! He aimed his sidearm over at him. "Bartlby, hand that device over to Sonia now!"

"No, it's mine," Bartlby replied. Quickly, Ryan released Robotnik by throwing him hard to the stage. His shin hit hard on the stairs as Ryan violently ran over to Bartlby and Sonia. Ryan skidded to a stop and pointed his gun at Bartlby's forehead with the barrel touching his skin.

"Give it or I'll kill you!" Ryan yelled. Bartlby, in fear, handed Sonia the grenade, who then handed it to Ryan. Ryan took it and Sonic and Sonia ran back to him. The four ran to the emergency exit. Ryan faced the SWAT Bots on the stage. He soon realized that Sleet and Dingo came to as they ran to Robotnik.

"Hey, dickbots! You better heat up!" Ryan yelled with a smile. He pulled the pin on the grenade with his index finger. He tossed the grenade and the spoon came flying off. The grenade flew into the backstage with the bots.

"I suggest you take cover," Ryan said to Bartlby.

Ryan grabbed the three hedgehogs and the four of them leaped out the emergency exit. Soon, Bartlby ran out afterward.

Inside, the grenade exploded and all the SWAT Bot's were destroyed. Robotnik jumped off the stage as the explosion built up.

"Run through the windows!" Robotnik yelled.

Ryan and the hedgehogs ran on the lawn outside as the windows shattered behind them from the flames.

All the aristocrats made it outside leaving Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo. The three ran as the fire built up behind them. The explosion fire was building fast behind them like they were running from a burning gas station. The three jumped through the window. A second later, the windows shone with explosion flames. Soon, the walls were blown away! Ryan, Sonic, Sonia, and Manic got up and ran and ran as the whole ballroom building exploded in a huge fireball! The four ran, jumped over the fence, and did not stop. Robotnik, Sleet and Dingo and the rest of the aristocrats did the same thing.

Soon, the explosion stopped. All that was left were just flames and very small remains of the building. Not just the ballroom was destroyed, the entire building was eradicated! Robotnik and the rest looked at it in fear. Many of the aristocrats were crying in fear. Robotnik and the other two just stared at the flames wide-eyed.

"United States Army... Special Forces... expert marksman... weapons specialist... graduated top of his operational detachment..." Robotnik paused, "... what the hell have we gotten ourselves into?"

Robotnik then came to realize a fear he has never felt before despite all of his failures against the hedgehogs. He felt, this time, he made a mistake; he caught the only man that could resist. He felt that, this time, Robotnik cannot win.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	6. Aleena and Q Course II

**CHAPTER 6**

**Aleena and Q-Course II**

**1**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Several weeks have passed while in the individual phase of his Special Forces training. Ryan has pretty much mastered the fighting using his hands, knifes, batons, and even unloaded guns.

Ryan is completely alone within the pine-tree forest of Fort Bragg. On him are his gears, a knife, and his face painted olive drab. He stopped and sat down on a rock, took out his water canteen, and took a few sips before capping it and setting it back. He then pulled put out a map of the forest he is in and a compass.

Carefully, Ryan marked his current position on the map and calculated distance and direction to his objective. First, he aligned his maps compass rose to his true compass and designated his direction. This was mostly like his final test in Selection, but the land navigation skills were getting harder and trickier.

Eventually, Ryan navigated himself back on the path and slowly made his way to the barracks he was supposed to be at. Already, three of the recruits and the entire instructor staff were there. Just three recruits? This was amazing; he was not expecting to be one of the top to find his way back quickly. It was amazing for Ryan because, during Basic Training, land navigation was one of his weak points.

"Outstanding, Perreault," one of the instructors said to him.

**2**

_PRESENT DAY_

Ryan, Sonic, Sonia, and Manic walked down the Robotropolis streets to get back to the base as the sun was slowly rising. This was one of the first times Ryan actually saw daylight in Robotropolis, since it is always seen at night.

"Dude, you just blew the place wide open!" Manic said amazed.

"It wasn't all that impressive. It completely synched my skirt!" Sonia yelled as she brushed off the ashes from her dress. Sonia is notorious for hating to be dirty.

"It was either your skirt or your tail," Ryan said.

"It was almost my tail," Sonia said.

"It's okay. Relax. I've done this kind of stuff many times. I'm used to it. Maybe I'm not used to enjoying being shot at, but I'm used to blowing up stuff and all," Ryan said. Even though Ryan was actually a Weapons Sergeant, he has had his share of using explosives. A Weapons Sergeant's job is usually maintaining the squad's firearm weapons, training on firearm usage and safety, and moving ahead of friendly forces to clear mine fields. Explosives are usually the Engineering Sergeant's job.

The four continued to walk. All four of them were unaware that they were being watched. A shadowy figure slowly followed them along the roofs of the buildings. That figure was none other than the mother of Sonic, Sonia, and Manic. Her name was Queen Aleena. According to the show, after Queen Aleena gave birth to her children, the Oracle of Delphius revealed a prophecy that Robotnik will be taken down by the council of four, but in order for that to happen, Aleena had to separate her three children. After the separation, Aleena went into hiding and was never found, which also gave her very little screen time on the show. Fifteen years later, the three triplets found each other. It was a shame because Aleena was one of Ryan's favorite characters and she got little, if any, screen time.

As the four walked, they walked passed a hover truck with side-view mirrors. Ryan's eye caught a glimpse in the mirror and saw Aleena's silhouette in the roofs behind him. Because of the prophecy, Ryan did not tell the three hedgehogs that Aleena was close-by. Doing so might ruin the prophecy.

"You okay, Ryan?" Sonic asked.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," Ryan quickly said.

**3**

The four turned a corner and Aleena jumped to another flat roof and followed them. A few streets away, three SWAT Bots were heading to the building that Aleena is on top of.

Ryan looked at another side-view mirror to a vehicle and he saw the bots heading in the building. He then noticed Aleena was on that building.

"Uh, guys, how about you three go without me. I'll wonder around a bit," Ryan said.

"Are you sure?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, I know my way around. I'll see you later," Ryan said.

"Well, okay. See you later," Manic said as the three walked on. Ryan walked behind the hover vehicle he saw the bots in with the mirror.

Aleena looked down and noticed her three children, but no signs of Ryan.

"Where did he go?" Aleena asked.

The three bots burst into the building and ran up the stairs. Aleena did not hear them coming.

Ryan got up from behind the vehicle and stayed low. Aleena still could not see him. Slowly, Ryan crept to the building.

The three bots made it to the roof and slowly began sneaking toward Aleena.

Ryan entered through the busted open door and crept up the stairs with his Heckler and Koch USP sidearm pointed out aiming it up the stairs.

As Aleena looked over the roof, she heard three laser weapons' charged up behind her. She quickly turned around and saw she was cornered by three SWAT Bots.

"Freeze, prisoner!" the bot shouted in its computer-like voice.

Aleena was cornered from the edge of the roof and the bots; there was nothing she could do.

"Freeze! United States Army!" a voice yelled from behind. The bots turned around and there was Ryan behind them with his gun pointed at them.

"You!" Aleena said pointing at Ryan. "I was wondering where you went."

"Hi there, your majesty," Ryan said. Ryan then focused his attention to the bots, whose weapons are aimed at Aleena and not him. "Lower your laser guns, detach them, and get on the ground."

"Fuck you," one bot said. For the first time ever, he heard such a word in this specific cartoon world. So, they do know profanity, it seems like the television network keeps them censored. Ryan acted casual as if it is a common word. He sees no harm in profanity, mainly because they are just words. Words cannot hurt anybody, but nine bi nineteen millimeter bullets from a Heckler and Koch pistol can.

"Fuck me? Fuck me?" Ryan asked. He turned to Aleena and said, "Did he say 'Fuck me'?"

"I think he fucked you," Aleena said. Again, Ryan was amazed that even official characters are familiar with and use such words. It must be the networks that censor them out.

"What I thought," Ryan said, "I don't understand. I got the uniform, I got the gun. You three have laser weapons. It's not going to work out."

Suddenly, seven SWAT Bots appeared on the roof behind Ryan.

"Ryan!" Aleena yelled pointing at the bots behind him. Ryan spun on his heel and noticed them. He swung around, aiming his gun at them. "How did you know my name, your majesty?" Ryan asked Aleena while still looking at the bots.

"Make a long story short, I've been watching you since you escaped from the prison," Aleena said.

"Drop your gun," one bot said.

"By order of the Department of the United States Army, you must surrender yourselves now," Ryan said.

"Drop your gun," the bot repeated.

Ryan had no choice; he was surrounded on all sides by ten SWAT Bots. He bent over and put his gun on the ground. "I guess I'm going to have to do this the hard way."

Aleena was forced to walk and stand next to Ryan by the other three bots. Aleena was not that short. From the top of her hair, she came up to Ryan's neck.

"I can't fight, Ryan," Aleena said.

"What do you mean you can't fight? Fine time to tell me now," Ryan said rudely.

"What do you want?" Aleena asked.

"You, dead. Ryan, robotosized," the bot said.

"Damnit," Ryan said.

Instantly, Ryan was hit in the face with a laser gun. Ryan fell backwards with his nose bleeding. The bot did not hit Ryan hard enough to put him on conscience, but it did give him pain. Ryan had felt a huge amount of pain in his career, but he certainly does not enjoy it.

"That must hurt, Ryan," Aleena said. She turned to the bots surrounding her. For being surrounded by SWAT bots and unarmed, Aleena certainly has a cocky attitude. It is almost as if she is unafraid to die, as if she wants to get the last word in before being killed.

"Your friend has balls," the bot said to Aleena.

"My friend is a bit of country, I'm a little bit rock and roll," Aleena said.

"What does that mean?" the bot asked.

"Oh, just a little phrase I use to break the ice. I know you probably don't want me dead, you want mobiums, eh?" Aleena asked.

"Mobiums?" the bot asked.

"Yeah, to pay for your SWAT Bot factory. Since I went into hiding, I barely have any with me, but I still have some," Aleena said. She turned around. "I'm going to slowly reach in my back pocket and pull out my wallet, see?" She did so and pulled out her wallet. "I have a lot of mobiums in here that you would like." She reached in her wallet and pulled out her credit card. "Will plastic do well?"

Aleena pressed her thumb on a certain area on the credit card and a small blade stuck out if the top! That was not a credit card!

Next thing that happened, Aleena slashed the credit card with the blade across the bot's necks! The bots fell down sparking as the oil and fuel lines in their necks have been cut. It was the same kind of lines that Ryan cut with his knife twice. One bot ran to Aleena. Instantly, Aleena did a martial arts spin kick, standing still, knocking the bot over flipping it over and on its back. Ryan got up wide-eyed seeing Aleena doing this. A bot grabbed Ryan from behind, but Ryan grabbed the bot and flipped it over his shoulders smashing it. A bot tried to grab Aleena's neck, but Aleena grabbed the bots arm and broke the elbow joint! Then she kicked its legs causing it to fall on its back breaking. A bot tried to punch Ryan but Ryan ducked it and he kicked his leg under the bots legs causing it to fall.

One bot left, it ran to Aleena doing Kung-fu chops. Aleena instantly blocked all the blows with her own blocking moves. This amazed both Ryan and the bots. Where did she learn all this? Aleena was better than the bot and she kicked it over the edge of the roof obviously crushing it to pieces.

All the bots were down. Aleena walked to Ryan and looked at his nose.

"You okay?" Aleena asked.

"I'm fine. You know, for a second there, I thought you said you can't fight, your majesty," Ryan said. There were no records on the show of Aleena trained in various forms of martial arts. She looked like she took up Aikido, whereas Ryan was an expert in Krav Maga.

"It's not that I can't fight, it's against my duties as a queen. And please, just call me Aleena," Aleena said.

Ryan and Aleena bent down to a bot on the ground which was still active.

"Still on," Aleena said. Aleena grabbed the bots neck and held him to the wall of the roof entrance.

"How did you know that we were going to be here?" Aleena asked the bot angrily. There is another side of Aleena Ryan never saw, her angry side. She looked a bit scary looking showing her teeth and her blood vein.

"Let me handle him," Ryan said after a pause where the bot did not say anything.

"You speak bot?" Aleena asked.

"A little," Ryan replied. Aleena stepped aside and Ryan got in front of the bot. Instead of speaking, Ryan grabbed the bot's head and banded it constantly in the wall, shouting, "Answer the goddamn question before I beat the shit out of your dumbass!"

Ryan dropped the bot, and it landed with a loud clank.

"You speak good bot," Aleena smiled.

"Army bot," Ryan said.

"Read him his rights even though he's a little unconscious," Aleena said walking away.

Ryan stared down at the bot. "He knows them," Ryan said as he followed Aleena.

**4**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

All fourteen Special Forces recruits took a knee in front of an instructor. In the instructors hand is a rifle. Ryan, as well as every one else, listened carefully to the lecture.

"This is the Colt M4A1 Carbine Assault Rifle. It is a lot lighter and more accurate than the aging M-16. It has a collapsible stock, good for long ranges or close quarters. It also has five picatinny rails for attachments, one over the sights, and four around the grip. It has a maximum effective range for an area target of 600 meters, and for a point target of 350 meters. It is capable of both semi and full automatic," the instructor announced. "Now, one by one, you fourteen will be going on the rifle range."

**5**

It was Ryan's turn. Ryan, along with everyone else, wore their combat gear, boonie hats, and extra magazine pouches. In Ryan's hands is an M4 rifle. An instructor followed him to the starting line with a stopwatch around his neck. As soon as Ryan approached the line and stared off at all the targets at various ranges, he flipped his thumb on the safety, switching it to semi automatic.

"Whenever you are ready, Perreault," the instructor said to him.

In response, Ryan kept standing and aimed his weapon down the grassy range. He stared through the iron sight, keeping his focus on the front sight and aligning it with the target 50 meters away.

Ryan squeezed the trigger and a bullet burst. It shot the cardboard target, shaped like a human, square in the chest. A patch of dirt kicked up from behind it.

"Hit," the instructor said as he looked at his stopwatch.

At each point, the recruits are given two shots on a target. Ryan kept his aim and squeezed the trigger again. Again, the bullet impacted the cardboard target, emitting a loud bang sound echoing the valley.

"Hit, move on!" the instructor told him.

Ryan flipped the safety on his rifle and ran down to the next station with the instructor following close behind. Ryan ran to a set of metal barrels and got down on one knee behind them. He flipped the safety off and stared down the sights at the target over 75 meters away.

Ryan took in a few breaths and held in the last one. He squeezed the trigger and he saw the head of the cardboard cutout human get blown off.

"Hit," the instructor said.

Ryan controlled his breathing and kept his aim. He pulled the trigger again. This time, one of the arms were blown off. The cardboard cutout itself fell backwards after being knocked off its stand.

"Hit, continue!"

Ryan flipped the safety on again and ran to the next station. At this station, there was a short two-foot tall rock. Ryan skidded to a halt and laid prone front down behind the rock. He flipped the safety back to semi again and looked down the iron sight. This time, the target was at leased 100 meters down range. Ryan could barely see it. Slowly so he does not lose focus, he adjusted the longitudinal aim on his sights. He estimated the distance the amount of wind in the valley.

Ryan took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it out. He then inhaled very slowly and held his breath. In three seconds, he squeezed the trigger, and another round burst down range. After several milliseconds, he barely saw a piece of the cardboard cutout get ripped off and flung backward in the air.

"Hit."

Ryan adjusted his aim again. Slowly, he repositioned and controlled his breathing. He inhaled and held his breath again. Finally, he squeezed the trigger and another loud bang sound emitted. Again, Ryan saw a piece of the cardboard cutout get shot off.

"Hit, outstanding job, Perreault," the instructor told him. "Put it on safe and return to the group."

Ryan did as he was told. He grinned to himself happily. Although it was common for most Special Forces recruits to hit all targets, he was just proud to have been one of them.

**6**

_PRESENT DAY_

The sun was fully up. In the Mobius Park, Aleena and Ryan walked down a small path. The park looked a lot like Central Park in New York City. Ryan only been there once, but enjoyed it.

"I know a lot about you, Ryan. I know that we are on a TV show, I heard you. If you're a big fan of the show, how come you hardly know about me?" Aleena asked.

"You're hardly used. Just for a small line for a prologue and an epilogue of each episode. And maybe a few on-screen appearances here or there," Ryan said.

"No wonder you didn't know I know Aikido," Aleena said.

"I do know about the prophecy and the child separation. Don't worry, I understand the prophecy and I won't turn you in to your children," Ryan said.

"Thank," Aleena said. The two sat down at a coffee stand.

"Two coffee's, cream and sugar," Aleena ordered.

"No coffee for me," Ryan said. He did not like coffee. Aleena stared at him oddly.

"They're both for me," Aleena said. Two coffee cups were served to Aleena. "So, what do you think of my children?"

"I love 'em. Not in a romantic family way! Sonic's pretty fast and all, Sonia is great at martial arts, and Manic is a kleptomaniac," Ryan said.

"I know. I saw his basket being taken away. I know who Farrell was, the guy that raised Manic. I didn't want him to be a thief. A lot of people want him imprisoned," Aleena said.

"I feel his pain. Back on my planet, a lot of people want me dead," Ryan said.

"Why?" Aleena asked.

"Oh, just that I helped kill half of the Middle Eastern military strongholds, and blew up half of a country, and destroyed almost every military building in Northern Africa. Basically, most of the world wants me dead, some just because I'm an American," Ryan explained.

"Don't worry. I know about nine-eleven on your planet. You had a good reason," Aleena said.

"Gee, thanks," Ryan said.

Aleena took both of her Styrofoam cups of coffee with the lids on and got up. "I better leave now before my kids find me and ruin everything. It was nice talking to you," Aleena said.

"Nice knowing you too, Aleena," Ryan said.

Aleena turned and jogged the opposite way with her coffee. Ryan sat at the coffee stand and sighed.

"I got to get to a place where Robotnik won't find me. And I want to go home, too," he said to himself.

**7**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

This was not the first time Ryan was on an obstacle course, but this was the first time he will do one of this magnitude carrying all of his gear and a real loaded M4 rifle. Ryan volunteered to be the first one to go through it.

"This obstacle course is very self-explanatory, so I do not need to remind you about it," the instructor told Ryan. "Whenever you're ready, Perreault."

Ryan did a small warm-up jump and rotated his head. As soon as he stopped, the instructor knew Ryan was ready.

"Go!"

Ryan dashed down the dirt path toward his first obstacle, a low hurdle, which was a telephone pole suspended a few feet above the ground. Ryan held on the butt of his M4 with his right hand, grabbed the hurdle with his left and jumped his legs over it. Up and over, not so bad. Then again, it is early.

Ryan then ran up to the next obstacle which was a single high bar. The bar was like a high bar in a gymnastics stadium. Ryan let his M4 hang off of him as he performed the chicken wing method to get over it. He jumped up to grab the bar underneath, and then he threw his legs up, and rolled himself on top of and over the bar. He hit the ground boots first in a small pile of sawdust. He grabbed on his rifle and continued running.

The next obstacle was a combination of a slanted bar and a balance log. Again, he needed both hands for this obstacle so he tightened the straps on his M4 to hold onto it while still running. Ryan jumped up and grabbed the bar. He swung his legs up to grab a bar perpendicular to the one he grabbed with his hands. Quickly, he shimmied down the bar hand under hand handing upside down. Then he traversed a balance log that angled downward, much like a balance beam. Ryan flung himself onto the balance log and ran down it quickly. His instructors always told him he would hand more control proceeding down a narrow beam path if he were to run down it quickly. Ryan ran into another log, which he used to flip himself over it and dropped seven feet and landed in a pile of sawdust.

Ryan quickly got himself up and continued running down the course. Up next was a wall. He hit the wall running, swung himself over the six foot wall, and used his legs to fling himself over on the other side.

As soon as he landed on the other side, he came across another telephone pole hurdle. Just like the first one, easy, but what was lying ahead was not easy. Next up, he came across four chest-high hurdles. He had a technique to get over each one. First, he ran his chest into it and practically laid on the pole. Ryan then swung his legs over, and used one of his boots to push off to get on the other side. After catching his breath after the fourth chest-high hurdle, Ryan continued running.

The next obstacle was the double high bar. The goal is to go over the top bar, which by itself is too high to negotiate. Luckily, there is a lower bar to make it easier. Ryan used the chicken wing method again to get over the high bar. First, he climbed up onto the lower bar, used one leg to grab the lower bar and the other over the top bar while grabbing the top bar as well. He crawled on the top bar, pushing himself away from it as he jumped down. He kept his knees bent as he landed in another pile of sawdust.

Ryan quickly got back on his feet and ran to the last obstacle, nearly out of breath. The last one was the rope climb. A huge scaffold stood with a series of ropes hanging down from them. Ryan swung his M4 rifle on his back as he ran and grabbed into a rope. His arms were exhausted, so he used the brake-and-squat method to climb the rope. First, he wrapped the rope around his right leg once and let the end of the rope hand between his boots. He used his left boot to pin the rope over his right boot. Slowly, he made his way up, using his legs to push upward and his hands as a guide.

Within a minute, Ryan made it to the top and held himself there. He caught his breath and slowly slid his way back down. On the ground he met up with his instructor who stopped his stopwatch.

"Outstand work, Perreault," the instructor said to him. "Great way to show an example to your fellow recruits. Now, who's next?"

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	7. Cyrus and MOS I

**CHAPTER 7**

**Cyrus and MOS I**

**1**

Noon has risen in Robotropolis. Not too far away from the underground base where the hedgehogs reside is an underground laboratory. Within this cartoon-like lab stood a lion, slightly taller than Sonic, possesses a huge puffy yellow mane, and wearing a teal jumpsuit. His name is Cyrus, and his father was the robot that took Ryan's bag while being taken to his cell.

Cyrus can be described as a geek. He works on machines and engines for a living. Most of his gadgets have helped the Sonic Underground on a multitude of successful missions. Cyrus' late father has been into engineering as well, which rubbed off of him and onto his son.

A year ago, Cyrus was forced to spy on the hedgehogs for Robotnik, in return for his father not to be robotosized. However, in the end, Robotnik cheated on his deal and robotosized his father anyway. Cyrus has wanted revenge on Robotnik ever since.

Cyrus sat in his lab reading the newspaper. On the front page is a photograph of the destroyed ballroom Ryan blew up yesterday. Right above that is the headline in large print: BALLROOM BLOWS UP DURING AUCTION. Cyrus lowered the paper down to the near-empty workshop table and spun his small chair around to face Sonic, Sonia, and Manic waiting for his answer.

"Gigantic explosion at Robotropolis ballroom leaves unknown SWAT Bots destroyed and seven aristocrats injured?!" Cyrus yelled as if he was a police Captain yelling at his Non-Sword officers for messing up. "Aristocrats state a human man caused disturbance and chaos throughout the auction and even threatened to kill Robotnik."

"He did what he had to do," Sonic said.

"I understand that, but we try to keep a low profile, now everyone knows about the man staying with you," Cyrus said.

"And he also knows that they'll have a tough time trying to catch him. He fights a different way than us, Cy," Manic said. Cyrus sighed knowing he was right.

"Who exactly is he? You told me his army profile was a fake, certainly not an aircraft mechanic," Cyrus asked.

"His name is Staff Sergeant Ryan Perreault, he's a Green Beret," Sonia explained to Cyrus. The triplets were expecting Cyrus to fall out of his chair in shock, but he just sat there.

"I'm amazed he's Special Forces, but at the same time, it explains everything he has done so far. I'd like to see him now," Cyrus said to them, sliding out of his chair.

**2**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan stood waiting with the group of 14. He, as well as everyone else, has been in the Special Forces Qualification Course for 13 weeks. It was no surprise that everyone passed the individual phase. Ryan has been away from home for 24 weeks now. He spent three at Fort Benning for Airborne training, four at the Preparation course, another four at Selection, and now he just finished week 13 of the Q-Course and finished the Individual Phase. It was easy so far. Then again, it was early and Ryan has only got 36 weeks left before graduation.

Soon enough, an officer approached the fourteen in the large gazebo tent. This officer had a gold oak leaf cluster on his insignia, ranking him as a Major. Just like the 'Captain' from Selection, this Major had his name tape removed and he is wearing heavy Oakley sunglasses, disguising his identity. Following the Major are four Sergeants, each one looking like a Master Sergeant. Immediately, the fourteen stood at attention seeing him.

"As you were," the nameless Major said. The fourteen recruits relaxed. "You men will be going onto the MOS phase, that is the Military Occupational Skills. All Special Forces operators are trained in warfare, but each individual member has a certain role within his Operational Detachment Alpha so that each of you will work together as a team. I'm going to call you up, one by one and you immediately report to the Sergeant I assign you to."

The Major looked at his clipboard and began reading off the names. Ryan was excited he was getting this far in his training.

"The 18-Echo is the Communications Sergeant. Recruits Adams, Rush, and Samsung, report to Master Sergeant Jackson," the Major announced. Three of the recruits got up and ran to one of the four Sergeants. "For the 18-Delta, the Medical Sergeants, Recruits Nichols, Tanor, and Willard, report to Sergeant Storm." In response, the three recruits got up and jogged the short distance to the Sergeant. Only eight recruits are left. "18-Charlie, Engineering Sergeant. Recruits Davis, Matthews, Roselyn, and Thompson, report to Sergeant Mace." They did so, only leaving four recruits left. "The 18-Bravo is the Weapons Sergeant, which goes to the rest of your, Recruits Beta, Grimes, Nathanson, and Perreault. You boys go to Sergeant Maxwell."

The four recruits, one of which being Ryan, jogged the short distance to Master Sergeant Maxwell. Maxwell was an inch shorter than Ryan, but even in his uniform, the details of his muscles cannot be mistaken. This man also had a neutral look on his face, not too stern but shown a bit of friendliness. Ryan could tell this man enjoyed his job and was serious about it. Luckily for him, he gets to teach people something that these four recruits want to learn.

"Okay, I'm Master Sergeant Jeff Maxwell, I was an 18-Bravo in the Special Forces for over 16 years, I left the teams six years ago to become an instructor here at Bragg. For the next 15 weeks, I will be teaching you the proper terms of being a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant. In case you don't know, a Weapons Sergeant is the weapons specialist of the ODA, he is capable of going behind enemy lines to recruit and train indigenous and foreign forces how to operate weaponry. Some of your tasks include clearing mine fields, maintaining the team's weaponry, and even provide heavy suppressing fire for your team on direct action missions," Sergeant Maxwell explained to us. "Most Weapons Sergeants are either advanced marksmen or automatic riflemen. Let's see if I get your names correct. I have with me, Sergeant Beta, Sergeant Grimes, Private First Class Nathanson, and Corporal Perreault, am I right?"

The four recruits nodded with a scattering, "Yes, Sergeant."

"Good, now follow me to the classroom and let's get started," Maxwell said. Sergeant Maxwell led the four recruits toward the classrooms. This officially begins Ryan's MOS phase in his Special Forces training.

**3**

_PRESENT DAY_

Ryan sat on a bench just outside one of the laboratories in the hallway. Since the place is underground, there are no windows so it looks like night all the time. Ryan hated daylight. In fact, he covered all of his basement-bedroom windows with cardboard to keep the sun out.

As he sat on the bench waiting, with his olive drab man bag leaning on the floor, a tall brown mouse walked in down the hallway. Ryan knew who he was. He was Trevor, another friend of Sonic's and only seen on Sonic Underground.

"Hey, you must be Trevor," Ryan said happily.

"Hi, you must be Ryan," Trevor said leaning on the wall speaking in a hippie accent.

"Yup."

"I was told you're a Green Beret," Trevor said to him.

"It was a bitch to become one, and the job itself is even a bigger bitch."

"So, why don't you quit?"

"As bitchy as it is, I love my job," Ryan said with a grin. It was true; Ryan did indeed love his job. There are a few unpleasant parts, such as wading through cold natural water and the fear of getting noticed. In Ryan's experience, he learned that getting spotted by the enemy is scarier than getting shot by the enemy. Every mission he goes out on, he fears of getting killed, but he and his ODA have rarely been in firefights. In fact, many missions Ryan been on, only two or three bullets were fired, and by his own team. Most of his job involved outsmarting the enemy, which Ryan has a lot of fun doing. In the end, he knows he will never be known for his work and the news will place the victory on a local police unit or an accident, but Ryan would always feel better knowing he has saved millions of American and Allied lived, even at the risk of his own. Ryan loves his job.

"I see," Trevor said not amused. "So, um, what unit are you part of?" Something like this would be considered classified, but Ryan knew he was not even on planet Earth. There was no way what he was about to say can reach human Earth ears.

"5th Special Forces Group, 1st Battalion, D Company, ODA 377," Ryan explained, saying the ODA letters and 377 numbers individually. The 5th Special Forces Group is one of the current dominant Special Forces Groups in the Army; their main Area of Responsibility is in the Middle East. Each group has between three to five Battalions. A Battalion contains three to five companies represented by a letter, and each company consists of a various number of ODA's. An ODA, Operational Detachment Alpha, or better known as an A-Team, have 12 operators. Each ODA has a Commander, which is usually a Captain, and an Assistant Commander, which is usually a Chief Warrant Officer-2. Under the command of the Captain are two Weapons Sergeant, two Engineering Sergeants, two Communications, Sergeant, and two Medical Sergeants, each a Staff Sergeant or a Sergeant First Class, a junior and a senior. Completing the ODA are two experienced operators, an Operations Sergeant and an Intelligence Sergeant, neither of which are entry-level positions. Both the Operations and Intelligence Sergeants are either a Master Sergeant or a Sergeant Major. Currently, Ryan is a Junior Weapons Sergeant within his ODA.

Trevor did look puzzled because he was unfamiliar with the terms. He just stood leaning on the wall thinking of what to say after a long silence. Finally, Trevor said, "You did cause a lot of damage at the ballroom."

"I know. Just be lucky that no aristocrat died," Ryan replied.

"I agree with you. But it'll be both of our asses if you're wrong."

"Tell me, Trev, what would you do if you were in my shoes? Let's say you were kidnapped and taken to my world on Earth and had to escape, would you do the same I did?"

Trevor thought about it. He was not that physically strong, and he was no where near compared to the skills Ryan has, but he would fight for what he believes in.

"I guess so. I don't know all that gung-ho stuff you do, but I guess I would give an escape an attempt," Trevor replied.

"Good job. Basically, there is one misconception when it comes to fighting in Special Forces. Your biggest and most powerful weapon is right here," Ryan said, finishing his sentence by pointing at his own forehead. He was referring to his mind.

"I don't know how to repel or shoot guns."

"But you can fly!"

"Yeah. I was shot down and had to eject, though," Trevor said. Ryan nodded, he remembered that episode where Trevor's aircraft was hit and his escape pod landed in a fast flowing river. Sonic had to risk going down to get Trevor out, just seconds before the escape pod took on water and sunk.

"I was shot once," Ryan said. Ryan was shot at many times, but only once a bullet hit him. He was within a year of combat service when he was deployed on a peacekeeping mission on the Georgia/Abkhazia border. His ODA was approaching a village that was taken over by rebels and their mission was to liberate it. All of a sudden, a shot rang out. All twelve operators dropped. Since there were civilians in the village, they could not risk shooting back, so the commander ordered a smoke grenade in the area. Just as Ryan reached down to unclip his smoke grenade from his belt he saw his left shoulder bleeding. That bullet that rang out hit him, yet he did not feeling it until he started to see it. After calling out for the medic, he got it patched up and the rest of the team continued the mission with no further hits. When they reached back home, Ryan was awarded with the Purple Heart, awarded to anyone who was wounded in action against an opposing armed force. It was his only Purple Heart as of the date.

"Did it hurt?" Trevor asked.

"Not until I actually noticed it," Ryan said. "You see, when you're in action, unlike in the movies, you'll never know you got shot for a while. In the movies, a soldier shoots someone and they drop dead instantly. In real life, you get shot, you won't notice. You're still firing your weapon at full auto not knowing you're dying. Eventually, you'll drop. Unless, of course, the bullet hits your head or spine, those are instantaneous."

Trevor gulped in fear hearing that. He was convinced that combat was a scary thing. The only scary thing in combat was getting shot and that was just a small percentage of what it is like.

Before the conversation could continue, Sonic walked into the hallway from the laboratory room. He immediately noticed Trevor and nodded to him.

"Hi, Trevor. Ryan, we'd like to see you now," Sonic said turning his attention to Ryan.

Ryan stood up and faced Trevor. Ryan and Trevor shook hands.

"Nice talking to you," Ryan said.

"Nice talking to you, too," Trevor said back. They released and Ryan walked in the room with Sonic. Sonic turned his attention on Trevor as soon as Ryan walked passed him.

"What did you two talk about?" Sonic asked.

"His career. Sonic, he has pretty good fighting techniques. Almost makes me wish he were a part of the Resistance with us," Trevor said.

"Yeah, well, he's a Green Beret on Earth. Realize we cannot keep him here forever, he has to get back."

"Understood."

Sonic closed the door leaving Trevor outside. He sat in a chair and sighed. He then looked down and noticed Ryan's olive drab bag with a book sticking out of it. He picked the book up and it is titled, 'The Special Forces, Endurance Techniques.'

Trevor flipped through a few pages to see black and white drawing of military soldiers doing all kind of combat maneuvers. He read a few pages and got pretty interested.

**4**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Several weeks into the MOS phase has left Ryan, and the other recruits mentally exhausted, but at the same time highly enjoying it. The four recruits were still banned from any contact with the rest of their regiment. They all wonder how they are doing. Ryan himself was wondering how his buddy, Davis, was doing as an Engineering Sergeant.

The four recruits were laying prone side-by-side on a 1,000 meter firing range. Each one was equipped with a CheyTec Intervention M200 sniper rifle. Ryan, being right-handed, had it easy with easier access to the trigger and bolt.

As the four lay there, staring down their scopes, Sergeant Maxwell, along with a few other Sergeants, stood behind them with binoculars, staring down the range. Several of the human-shaped targets had holes in them.

"Okay, Beta's got two head shots," Maxwell said. "Grimes, you need one headshot to top Beta."

Recruit Grimes inhaled and slowly exhaled. He inhaled again, held his breath, and squeezed the trigger. In under a second, the cardboard cutout's head popped off.

"Outstanding, Grimes," Maxwell said happily. "Alright, Nathanson, at your ten o'clock is a hostile with civilian close by. Chest shot the hostile to disable him and make sure the hostage gets out."

Down the range was a cardboard cutout of a man with a knife. Almost next to it was a cutout of a female civilian. Within seconds, a gunshot rang out, impaling the hostile square in the chest, creating a large hole.

"Good job, Nathanson," Maxwell said. "Perreault, you got two headshots as well. Unless you want a Private First Class to dominate you, I suggest a headshot on the hostile at your eleven o'clock directly on top of the civilian."

Ryan was a Corporal and Corporals outrank a Private First Class. Ryan stared down the scope of his weapon and placed the crosshairs slightly above the hostiles head. The civilian cardboard cutout was directly in front of the hostile, so one slip and the bullet will hit the civilian. Ryan concentrated his breathing and held it in. He squeezed the trigger and a bullet burst. In a second, the force of the bullet ripped off the cutout's head.

"Outstanding!" Maxwell shouted as he lowered his binoculars. "Alright, good work you four, break time."

The four recruits got up and started giving each other high fives at their performances. Ryan was having the time of his life.

**5**

_PRESENT DAY_

Inside the laboratory room with Ryan, Ryan is sitting in a chair with wires hooked to him. Behind him is a lie-detector machine that Cyrus is looking. Cyrus sat at a computer with Sonic, Sonia, and Manic standing beside him.

"Okay, Ryan, I'm going to ask you two test question to establish a baseline, please answer yes to both questions. Are you Staff Sergeant Ryan Michael Perreault, United Stares Army?" Cyrus asked.

"Yes," Ryan replied.

"Are you a girl?"

"Yes."

Cyrus typed a few think on the computer he was working on. The computer beeped, signaling a baseline established. The baseline is used to cancel out any nerves in the subject's body that makes him nervous. If the subject is nervous, then it would be hard to tell which ones are the lies. However, creating a baseline cancels out any of the nerves that indicate the subject being nervous, so the only nerves remaining will display the lies.

"Okay, let's begin. Is Earth your home planet?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

"Yes."

"Did you kill any American soldiers on your planet?"

"No."

"Did you come to Mobius through a portal?"

"Yes."

"Was it under your own power?"

"No."

"Did you assault the four SWAT bots two nights ago?"

"Yes."

"Did you cause the aristocrat auction ballroom explosion?"

"Yes."

"Did you threaten Bartlby at gunpoint?"

"Yes."

"Have you killed any aristocrat at that ball?"

"No."

"Did you hurt any aristocrat?"

"Yes."

"Was it in self-defense?"

"Yes."

"What does this have to do with anything?" Manic interrupted.

"I don't think he deserves questions like those, Cyrus," Sonia said.

"Okay," Cyrus gets up, "Take over if you want." Cyrus patted Ryan on the back and walked out of the room. Sonia looked at the machine.

"Okay, Ryan, do you have any other fighting skills besides what you just shown us?" Sonia asked.

"Yes," Ryan replied.

"Can you name a few?" Manic asked.

"I can fight with knives, I'm an expert marksman, I'm also a weapons specialist," Ryan explained.

"Last question." Sonic said. Ryan hesitated. "That morning after the ballroom explosion, you said you had to go somewhere. After you left, Manic said he saw a silhouette on the roofs to the building where you were going. Did you meet our mother?"

At first, Ryan hesitated to answer. He did not want the prophecy to be ruined. However, Ryan figured Sonic, Sonia, and Manic knew that, too. Besides, Ryan was on a lie-detector test. Despite being a Green Beret, unlike in the movies, no human being can overcome a lie-detector test.

"Yes. Yes, I did. I met her on the roof of a building. I saved her," Ryan said. Sonia turned off the machine and walked to Ryan face-to- face teary-eyed.

"What is she like?" Sonia asked with a tear in her eye.

"She's tough," Ryan said.

"What do you mean, 'tough'?" Sonia asked.

"You'll have to see her for yourself. She's very nice," Ryan said.

Cyrus walked in the room again.

"Done?" Cyrus asked.

"Yeah," Ryan said. Cyrus checked out the machine's role of paper. Ryan told the truth on everything. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic looked at each other smirking, and they all winked. They smiled, put their hands behind their backs and they walked to Ryan as he was taking the wired off of him.

"Say, Ryan, we were just wondering if it is at all possible to, well, teach us how to be Green Berets?" Sonic asked. Ryan was not expecting this. Granted that Ryan is trained to be an instructor. Back in the Korean War, the Special Forces were organized as combat instructors, not combat operators. They were created to teach friendly forces combat to those who cannot help themselves. It was not until Vietnam when they started seeing combat themselves. To keep the tradition alive, Ryan was also taught to be an instructor, but as a Weapons Sergeant, he was only limited to teaching indigenous forces how to use weapons. Ryan is in a world where the weapon's he is familiar with do not exist.

"Well, it might be a problem, because Green Berets work in teams. You got the team leader, riflemen, snipers, demolitions, and medics," Ryan explained. "One, my biggest weakness is leadership. Two, I can only teach weapons, and you guys do not have the kind of weapons I'm familiar with. And three, Green Berets are limited on knowledge, which forces everyone to work as a team. If one person knew everything, he would go lone-wolf and the team would be out of balance."

However, the three hedgehogs seemed persistence. They were confident in Ryan despite what he is confident in himself. Besides, Ryan had no idea what Cyrus has hidden away in the large metal closet in the back of the lab.

"Ryan, come with me," Cyrus said to him. Ryan stood up out of the chair and followed Cyrus. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic followed close behind.

**6**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

The four Weapons Sergeant recruits stood in front of table's right in front of a short-range firing range. In front of them on the tables are five boxes, varying in sizes. Sergeant Maxwell stood in front of them and explained the rules.

"In front of you are fives boxes. You should be familiar with these parts, they are weapons. Your job is to assemble these weapons one at a time. You will have to assemble to M92 Beretta, the M4 rifle, the MP5 submachine gun, the Kalashnikov, and the Krinkov assault rifle," Sergeant Maxwell explained as he left the field. "Good luck."

Just before the whistle blew starting the assembly, four Sergeants stood behind each recruit and they slipped blindfolds over each of the recruit's eyes. None of them were surprised knowing it was coming. Once the blindfolds were tightened on, the four recruits felt their way to the first box on their separate tables.

The whistle blew.

Although Ryan was blind, he was able to open the box and feel the pieces inside. The barrel was small, so this was the Beretta. Ryan is usually afraid of being blind because his sense of sight is his strongest sense. At leased Ryan was not being forced to wander around, he was fixed in one position. He also has sensitivity to touch, so he was able to identify each piece and assemble them to the right pieces.

As Ryan continued making his weapons, he remembered doing this test back in Selection. He remembered they tried to trick him by adding two extra weapons on the table to confuse him while blind folded. He was hoping this time they won't try to confuse him.

Ryan finished the Beretta and felt for the next box. He opened it up and felt the pieces inside. He was confused at first until he felt the triangular small grip, meaning this was the MP5. Just like the last one, he assembled it together, feeling his way through while keeping his head fixes straight. He assembled a weapon he was very familiar with, the M4 rifle. Ryan assembled that in a flash easily. Next came two ones that Ryan was just barely learning, the two Kalashnikov rifles. Luckily, the AK-47 and the Krinkov assault rifle are built off of the same variants. Ryan assembled them but it was taking him longer than usual on both. However, Ryan heard everyone else still working on theirs. Eventually, Ryan finished all five of his weapons. Soon, he heard the others finish as well.

"Okay, good job," they heard Maxwell say. "Remove your blindfolds."

The four ripped the blindfolds off of their heads and looked at their tables. No surprises. They were pleased to see each weapon made. Suddenly, Maxwell walked to each table and places a set of bullets in front of each recruit. Ryan looked at the bullets that Maxwell gave him; there were two 9 by 19 millimeter bullets, one 5.56 by 45 millimeter, and two 7.62 by 39 millimeter bullets.

"To be sure you assembled your weapons correctly, load a round and fire one down range," Maxwell announced as he stood out of the way of the firing range.

Ryan loaded one of the nine millimeters on the Beretta and the other in the MP5. He loaded the 5.56 in the M4, and the two 7.62 bullets in the two Kalashnikov rifles. Ryan aimed his Beretta up and squeezed the trigger. Bang! He assembled the Beretta correctly. He heard three other bangs as well; meaning they all assembled their Berettas correctly, too.

Ryan let out a sigh. He picked up his MP5, placed the butt on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Bang! It fired again. It was followed by three other bangs. He then went for his M4 and pulled the trigger, again bursting a round down range. Again, it was followed by three other bangs.

Next was one of the weapons that Ryan was worried about. He was not 100 familiar with the AK's like a real Weapons Sergeant is, but he did feel a bit confident in his weapons assembly skills. He aimed the AK-47 down the range, squeezed the trigger, and prayed. Bang! The gun went off. Ryan was pleased that he assembled the rifle correctly.

However, Ryan only heard one gunshot following. After that came two click sounds. Ryan looked over and noticed Grimes and Nathanson's AK-47's did not fire. It was no time to pause and wonder why, they had to keep going. They all picked up their Krinkov rifles and aimed down range. Ryan squeezed the trigger and was happy to hear it bang. This was followed by two other bangs. Ryan noticed that Nathanson's Krinkov did not go off.

"Okay, weapons down," Maxwell announced. He turned his attention to Ryan and Sergeant Beta, both of which have fired all five of their weapons. "You two take a break. Outstanding work." Ryan and Beta turned and jogged off to the recreational barracks. Both are wondering what is going on with Grimes and Nathanson.

Later that day, Ryan learned that both Grimes and Nathanson assembled the firing pins wrong and bent the springs, causing both weapons to malfunction. Once they fixed the problems, they joined Ryan and Beta in the barracks.

**7**

_PRESENT DAY_

Cyrus stood in front of a large metal closet witch looked like an oversized locker. Cyrus slid the key into the lock and turned it with a click.

"Ryan, ever since I heard of your coming and of your profession, I studied on the kinds of weapons and equipment being used by the American military," Cyrus explained. "I felt like if you had to fight Robotnik, you would need something that made you feel familiar."

Cyrus slid the door open emitting a loud creak. Behind the doors stood any gun-lover's dream. There were several sets of black battle dress uniforms complete with light armored plates, boots, and pouches. There was one made for Ryan's size. There were also five others made smaller, perfect for furries like Sonic.

Hanging above the uniforms and gear are a set of assault rifles Ryan knew and loved. One in particular was the Colt M4A1 Carbine Assault Rifle. It was not the military version with the five picatinny rails. It was the law enforcement version with a sturdy single grip around the front barrel. There was a picatinny rail where the iron sight is. Attached to the iron sight handle was a 4x ACOG scope, and attacked to the right side of the grip was a tactical flashlight, similar to the ones that police SWAT teams use. In addition, there are several sets of magazines around it. With the M4 rifle are a set of Heckler and Koch MP5A2 submachine gun rifles with the fixed butt stock, tactical flashlight under the barrel, and an Eel sight red dot aim point. Ryan guessed these weapons were for the furries.

"Go ahead, take it," Cyrus said with a grin.

Ryan stepped forward and gripped his hand around the cartoon-drawn rifle. Being cartoon-drawn, it did have all the perfect details Ryan was familiar with. He held onto the handle grip and felt the gritty texture as well and the weight of the weapon. Ryan grabbed the T-shaped bolt behind the sights and gently pulled on it. He peeked in the chamber and realized the magazine was loaded but the gun itself was not chambered. It was good that Cyrus also learned firearm safety. Ryan turned and looked at Cyrus who was still grinning. Ryan himself could not help but smile as well.

"Cyrus, when did you have time to make all of this?" Ryan asked happily.

"I have plenty of time and I can make things very quickly," Cyrus replied. "So, what do you say, will you teach us. We are freedom fighters, but you can help make us better. You in?"

Ryan thought about it. He could teach them the combat tactics he knows. He will eventually have to return back home. Ryan then recalled his time in Iraq when he was teaching the locals about the usage of firearms while holding a Kalashnikov rifle. In the end, Ryan nodded to the furries.

"When shall I teach the first lesson?" Ryan asked.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	8. Training and MOS II

**CHAPTER 8**

**Training and MOS II**

**1**

Early the next morning, training began. Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor sat at a table within a small lab room with table and chairs, built somewhat like a college biology laboratory. All five furries are all wearing the black jumpsuits and boots that were in the locker found yesterday by Ryan.

Each character had mixed feeling about what was going to happen. Sonic seemed excited but was not too fond of his attire. Sonia did not much care but knew it would be a huge benefit in her fight against Robotnik after what he did to her caretaker. Manic was jumping joy and he loved wearing full black. Cyrus felt like this was a great way to exact revenge on what Robotnik did to his father. Trevor also wants revenge and believes using this new training can help him.

"Black's not my color," Sonia said looking at her black battle dress uniform.

"Hey, sis, just think of it. We'll be like real Green Berets," Sonic said.

"Yeah, imagine the first girl Green Beret," Manic said chuckling. Sonia nodded to that, knowing that all American Special Forces positions are closed to females except police SWAT, FBI HRT, and Coast Guard TACLET. "Well, me, I'd personally like to be a Navy SEAL."

"No way! Not me!" Sonic shouted. He knew that Navy SEALs mostly operate in the water, which is Sonic's biggest fear. It was no mistake of Sonic being hydrophobic. "You take the water, I like being on dry land."

While Sonic said his last sentence, they heard a door open from behind them. Like classroom students, all five heads turned and faced the door. Walking in is Ryan himself. He wore the black uniform from yesterday. Because it was made in a cartoon world, it looked like Ryan was photoshopped. Ryan looked as if a photograph was taken of him and cartoon animators drew a uniform on him. All of Ryan was covered except his neck and head. His face was also clean and shaven, clearing off of his little shadow on his face.

"Well, seems like you guys are active and ready," Ryan said happily. He was excited to be teaching his favorite cartoon characters what he knows to be a Special Forces Operator. He remembered assisting in instructing a guerilla group in Abkhazia years ago.

"Oh yeah, lay it on us, Ryan," Manic proudly said. Ryan stood in front of the five of them and sat on the edge of a table. He began his lecture.

"Well, I'll begin with the basic idea. United States Army Special Forces is the most elite, most disciplined, and the most honored unit in the world. As a Special Forces Operator, your jobs are to operate in dangerous territories far away from the main friendly force deep behind enemy lines. If you are caught or killed, your fellow forces will disavow any knowledge of your existence," Ryan stated. "Now, usually you must go through a physical to see if you are qualified for joining. After that, you would go through a 24-day period called Selection, which will test you to your limits if you really want this job. However, since we are running low on time, we'll jump right into the Qualification Course."

**2**

Later that morning, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor were deep in training. They all wore their body armor, helmets, and each carried an MP5 submachine gun. Manic was speeding the van through a valley far away from Robotropolis. He skidded the van to a halt and immediately jumped out of the side car door. The back door to the van snapped open and Sonic, Sonia, Cyrus, and Trevor jumped out of the back and dove being a set of large rocks.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Manic called out joining them.

In a second, all five got up and ran almost suicidal-like toward a makeshift door frame suspended by a set of wooden boards. Standing next to the door was Ryan staring at a stopwatch.

As soon as all five furries zipped past Ryan and through the makeshift door, Ryan stopped the watch and looked at the time. Although the five furries could not see the time on it, Ryan did sigh like he was unimpressed.

**3**

Most of the day, the five furries have been running laps around the large valley carrying their heavy equipment on their backs. Ryan stood on top of the Sonic Underground van observing them.

**4**

Boom! The door exploded!

Manic and Cyrus were inside of a large maze-like complex made out of plywood. It looks like a CQB training quarters for police, which is exactly what it is. Earlier, Cyrus planted a small explosive on the door which blew it off its hinges.

Manic and Cyrus ran through the blown-open door, keeping the muzzles of their submachine guns off of each other, and were faced against a poster of a SWAT Bot holding an innocent Mobian at laser-gun point. Manic aimed his MP5 at the picture and squeezed the trigger. A single bullet burst with Manic showing no signs of recoil.

After the gunshot rang out, both furries stopped and looked closer at the poster. At the same time, Ryan, who was also in the room, walked up to the poster and was disappointed at what he saw. The bullet impacted the innocent furrie's hand.

"That ain't going to get it," Ryan said to Manic.

**5**

Sonic and Sonia slowly crept through the maze being as silent as they can. Sonia led up front while Sonic stayed close behind. The two were taught by Ryan how to clear rooms. So far, they were doing well.

Suddenly, just as Sonia and Sonic crossed in a room, Ryan came from out of nowhere behind them. He held his right hand, finger and thumb in the shape of a gun.

"Bang," Ryan said casually with his finger and thumb pointing behind Sonic's head. Sonic and Sonia sighed in disappointment when they turned around to see a disapproved look on Ryan's face. They knew being a Green Beret was going to be hard, but Ryan was really testing their limits. It was necessary because a simply mistake like not checking a corner could get a team member killed.

**6**

Later that evening, the five furries threw some heavy punches on five separate punching bags in Cyrus' laboratory. The rest of that evening, they were getting better in what they were doing. Manic improved his marksmanship skills as well as everyone else. In fact, Ryan told them that all five of them were qualified for the Expert Marksmanship Badge.

**7**

The next day, Ryan stood on top of a hill in the large valley. He stood on the edge of the hill with his hands in his pockets waiting on the five furries. After their mile run, the five were forces to climb up the 70 degree steep slope to reach Ryan at the top. Ryan was pleased to see all five of them helping each other up, which creates a bond of teamwork. In Ryan experience, he knew that teamwork was like breathing, it is needed for survival.

The five finally reached the top and met up with Ryan. He could tell they were all out of breath but was pleased to see smiles on their faces as well. They were like Ryan in some ways; even though it was hard they enjoyed the benefits of what they were going to get in return. It was painful but it was also worth it.

**8**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan was nervous. He had a right to be, public speaking was considered the most popular fear and Ryan had it as well. He had to give an oral presentation to Sergeant Maxwell and the other instructors about the M4 rifle. Being a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant means he had to instruct foreign forces on how to handle and use weapons. He had to prove that to his instructors posing as foreign military forces.

Ryan, dressed in his full Special Ops gear, approached the six instructors all of which are sitting or taking a knee on the ground in front of him. Ryan took in a deep breath and remembered what he had to say. He extended out the M4 rifle to the instructors and began his lecture.

"This is the Colt M4A1 Carbine Assault Rifle. It's a five point five six by forty-five millimeter two-two-three assault rifle," Ryan explained. So far, so good. "It is gas operated, capable of firing in semi or 16 rounds per second on full automatic. It is the main primary weapon in our military and law enforcement forces. It only weights six pounds loaded with a 30-round magazine and three pounds empty, making it light and quick to aim."

Ryan then grabbed the butt stock and pulled on the plastic switch which lifted the bolt out of its notch. With the notch released, the butt pulled back and slid in place. He released the switch which locked the butt stock.

"It has an adjustable butt stock for longer ranges or CQB, that is Close Quarters Battle for those who don't know," Ryan continued. He saw the instructors nod, meaning he is doing a good job so far. "It has a maximum effective range for a point target of 600 meters and for an area target of 350 meters, making it a very accurate weapon."

Ryan then closed the butt stock and pointed at the grip, which is covered with four detachable heat shields.

"This rifle has five picatinny rails," Ryan said pointing to them. "There are four around the grip and one just above the iron sight for different attachments. Various attachments include ACOG scope, red-dot aim points, M203 and M320 grenade launchers, PEQ-2 lights, forward hand grips, bipods, and much more to give your weapon more lethality. The front barrel can be fitted with a sound suppressor which can make your weapon a sniper rifle as well as an assault rifle."

Suddenly, the five instructors stood up and stepped a few feet from Ryan. Ryan could not tell, but he knew they were discussing his lecture. His heart was beating a mile a minute, hoping for a good verdict.

Finally, the five instructors spread and faced Ryan. Ryan instantly saw a smile on Sergeant Maxwell's face.

"That was satisfactory, Perreault," Maxwell said. Ryan sighed with relief. Many times, Ryan was in fear of failing this course. He always thought Selection was the worse part, just get past Selection and he got it made. However, he is learning the hard way that Selection was the leased of his problems. Anything could happen to him, all it takes is time to tell.

**9**

_PRESENT DAY_

It was late evening where the clouds are turning pink. Manic laid on his front as his stared down the 15-power scope of his M-24 sniper rifle. He also wore a large Ghillie suit matching the tall grass around him. Laying on his front next to Manic on the left side was Ryan. Ryan also has his face painted dark green. Again, just like everything else in this cartoon world, it looks like the paint was cartoon photoshopped on his face, yet it felt very real to Ryan.

Ryan stared through a set of binoculars parallel to Manic. A kilometer away is a pineapple on top of a large rock. Manic kept his crosshairs on the pineapple, waiting for Ryan's orders.

"Remember, Manic," Ryan whispered to him. "Fast is smooth, smooth is quick. Rear sight, front sight focus, estimate distance to target, control breathing, and trigger squeeze. Don't let anything distract you."

Manic did not respond. He was taught that talking would compromise the team. Ryan tricked him earlier when he said not to talk and Manic replied with an "okay" which got him in trouble. This time, Manic kept his mouth shut.

Manic looked down at his tablet notebook with a detailed sketch of the area and grids. He estimated that the target, the pineapple, was 870 meters, so Manic adjusted the distance knob on the right side of the scope.

Manic then licked his glove-less finger tip and stuck it out in the air slightly. He felt a cool breeze coming in at his one o'clock, at leased a tiny chill. He then carefully adjusted the knob on top of his scope, which was the wind correction. Carefully, he moved the scope to the left, making the gun point slightly right. Ryan was pleased in Manic using everything he was taught.

Now was the moment of truth. Manic slid his finger on the trigger and was ready to shoot. He took in a breath and let it out. He then in haled deeply, exhaled deeply, inhaled deeply, and held his breath. Within a second, Manic squeezed the trigger. The gun emitted with a loud bang sound, echoing throughout the valley.

It at leased a second, the pineapple exploded into millions of chunks. The bullet itself impacted the cliff wall not too far away. Ryan saw this through his binoculars and was pleased at the sight.

"Outstanding work, Manic," Ryan said happily. When Ryan turned to see Manic, Manic was no longer laying next to him. Ryan turned his head behind him and already saw Manic drawling away, staying concealed within the tall grass. Ryan could not help but smile. Manic also used his knowledge that, the exact second after a sniper takes his shot, he must get out of the area as quickly as possible.

**10**

Later that night in a grassy field of the valley, Ryan sat on a rock looking into the empty field.

"Whenever you're ready," Ryan called out while looking at his stopwatch.

Suddenly, a figure jumped out from behind a rock, out of nowhere, and tossed something deeper in the valley. As soon as that object was thrown, the figure disappeared. The thrown object looked like a miniature spray can. As soon as it impacted an area behind a set of trees and posters of SWAT Bots and innocent Mobians, it exploded with a puff of clear white smoke. It was tear gas!

Immediately after the tear gas was released, five shadowy figured leaped out of the grass almost out of nowhere. Anyone could have mistaken the valley to be empty. The five figures, obviously the furries, ran toward the source of the gas each wearing gas masks. The five ran within the area and, in under a second and a half, all the SWAT Bots posters were shot up by the MP5's. None of the posters with the innocent civilians were harmed.

"Clear!" Sonic shouted; his voice slightly muffled due to wearing the gas mask.

Ryan stood up from the rock and approached the posters as soon as the tear gas slowly died down. He looked at them all and then turned a stern face at the five furries. The stern face then smiled and he clapped at them.

"Outstanding work, guys, and girl," Ryan said to them.

**11**

"United States Army Special Forces is a life-saving unit, not a life-taking one," Ryan said to the five furries back in the classroom. "That's why, when I went through further advanced training, I trained along side the FBI, Secret Service, and other Special Operations units in the world."

It was true. Not only was Ryan trained to teach indigenous forces how to operate like soldiers and use weaponry, he also taught police, feds, and other units as well. One of his later assignments, before being taken to this cartoon world, was to teach the British Special Air Service about fire and movement with heavy weapons. It was not uncommon for other national units to train together. When Ryan went through advanced Close Quarters Battle, one of his instructors was a German GSG-9 operator.

**12**

The night was dark in the forest and almost empty. Anybody could have been fooled for it to be empty because Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor crept through the woods as quiet as they can, keeping their MP-5 submachine guns pointed away from each other. This time, all five were equipped with AN-PVS7-Delta night vision goggles, which were attached to their black helmets. The front of their helmets had a hinge on it which allowed for night-vision goggles to be mounted on. It could also allow the user to flip them on and off of their heads without having to shut them down.

Everything was going fine until Manic accidentally tripped over a log and fell face first in a pile of leaves and twigs. Manic just laughed at his clumsiness. Soon, the other furries were laughing too.

"Smooth move, Manic," Sonia said giggling. Suddenly, their laughter was stopped when Ryan approached them from out of nowhere with a flashlight in his hand.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey," Ryan said, not amused. "I guess if I was deaf, I would know you were here. But while you're laughing, there are lots of Resistance freedom fighters who are counting on you to take down Robotnik's tyranny. They don't want you to fail. Get it right."

Ryan flipped his flashlight off discouragingly. Ryan has pushed these five into teaching them everything he knew about warfare. Not only that, he taught them how to teach others how to fight against Robotnik when the time comes.

**13**

It has only been a few days since training began. Already, the five were quick learners. If they were on Earth, they would most likely already be Green Berets. Ryan was so proud of them.

It was a dark and windy night and the moon was nearly gone, almost like a tiny fingernail. A flash bang grenade was thrown into an area of the forest and it blew up, giving the area a temporary amount of light. Immediately, all five furries ran through the forest, weapons ready, and covering all areas around them. They were performing a leap-frog through the forest. A leap-frog was then a section of the team moved forward in a flanking arch while the other team stayed back to provide cover. Soon, the moving team would stop and the other would move in an arch as well. They constantly traded places as they moved to within an area.

Soon enough, the five made it to where they were supposed to be. They made it to an area with a lot of hidden SWAT Bots mannequins. They immediately started bursting live rounds at them. In under a second, so quickly, all the mannequins were shot down. Ryan was pleased to see their reflexes were outstanding. These five furries were like machines, they were awesome.

"Outstanding, guys!" Ryan called down to them. Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor looked up to see Ryan sitting in a tree. All five of them were proud of themselves, but they knew the training was not completely over yet.

**14**

Before going to bed, Sonic was throwing a series of punches on the punching bag in Cyrus' lab. It was discovered that Ryan should stay here to prevent Robotnik from recapturing him. Sonic remembered years ago when he first met his brother and sister. They were led to a forest and an ancient temple by monks to receive training on being a freedom fighter, but Ryan's training was harsher and more demanding. Plus, it required the usage of weapons and being stealthy. The Army commercials were right; they said they would help anyone find their inner strength. Sonic never knew he could be stealthy until Ryan forced it out of him.

As Sonic was beating on the punching bag, Ryan walked in from behind him. Ryan hung up his uniform and was now just wearing his black shirt and BDU pants he wore when he was being taken into this cartoon world.

"Hey, Sonic," Ryan said.

"Hey, Ryan," Sonic said panting.

"Where is everybody?"

"Asleep."

"You guys did very well."

"Thanks, we were taught by the best. Repelling, land navigation, team movement, close quarters battle, and even peeling. You taught it all, man."

"I'm glad to have been of service. Of course, the real training I went through took 60 weeks."

"Huh? I cannot see why. Only took us several days."

"Well, I did kind of rush on teaching you guys and we did skip all the physical training and everything. I just wanted to teach you warfare tactics," Ryan explained to him. "There is still so much to learn about being a Green Beret. There is the weapons assembly, hand-to-hand combat, there is also SERE."

"SERE? What's SERE?"

"Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. That training involves surviving what it is like to be a prisoner of war, very harsh," Ryan explained. "Also, the reason it takes 60 weeks is because we over-train our recruits so that combat literally becomes second nature. It's true, it's like a song you know the lyrics to by heart. You sing the first line and the rest of the song just comes out of you naturally. We are taught to perform team movements, aiming, and distinguishing targets naturally."

"Wow!" Sonic was amazed, keeping his focus on the punching bag. "Sounds tough."

"It is. Being a Green Beret has a failure ratio of 80. I started with a group of 80 recruits, and only a handful of us passed. I wanted to make sure you guys passed as well."

"No, you didn't. We helped pass for you. We were determined to make it through."

"Sonic," Ryan said while taking a seat in a nearby chair, "can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Why did you want me to teach you guys how to be Green Berets?"

With that, Sonic stopped punching the punching bag and slowly looked over at Ryan. A grin formed on the peach muzzle of Sonic's face as he grabbed a towel hanging off of a table.

"What you did back at Robotnik's headquarters was almost impossible compared to what I'm capable of. It all made sense when we found out you were Special Forces," Sonic began to say to Ryan, his grin widening. "Robotnik had a difficult time going up against one Green Beret. Imagine the look on his face when he's up against six Green Berets."

**15**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Today was the day; it was the final test for the four recruits to become Weapons Sergeants. What was following was a weapons obstacle course.

Beta, Grimes, Nathanson, and Perreault all laid on their fronts with CheyTec sniper rifle on their shoulders. Hanging off of them on their backs are M4 rifles and they carried their M92 Beretta sidearms in their holsters. The course was designed for all different types of weapons and quickness in using them.

"Okay, you four know the drills," Maxwell said to the four. They aimed their crosshairs on the targets in front of them. Maxwell put the whistle in his mouth and blew in it!

Bang! All four sniper rifles went off with a loud bang. There was no time to tell if they hit their targets or not, they all got up and ran side-by-side to their next weapon down the hill.

The four recruits dropped down to where four M249 Squad Automatic Weapons were waiting loaded up on their bipods. They pressed the butts to their shoulders and started firing at full auto at the many targets in front of them. The targets were a series of cardboard cutouts of human-shaped bull's-eyes.

Within a few seconds, they were sure they got all of their targets. The four stood back up and ran down the hill toward the flat lands. While running there, they pulled up their M4 rifles and started shooting at the targets while running slowly. They kept on destroying each target as they proceeded.

Once all the targets were destroyed, they dropped their M4's on the dirt and ran toward a table with four green boxes. Each one opened them up to pull out an MP5 submachine gun and a Benneli Nova shotgun. Ryan, as well as the other three, slid the strap of the shotgun over their shoulders and readied their MP5 guns.

Once they had their weapons, they rushed to a makeshift complex structure with four doors. Each one ran into a separate door and they were, for the first time, separated. Ryan ran through the small one-way mini maze with his MP5 gun ready. Along the way, he came across targets popping out of door ways and dead-end halls. He shot them to pieces every time he came across them. He also heard gunfire from his other fellow recruits on the other sides of the walls.

Soon, Ryan came up to another obstacle, the locked doorway. Ryan knew this was there the shotgun had to be used. He dropped his MP5 and equipped his Benneli shotgun. He heard a shotgun round go off a second before Ryan fired his at the door knob. The door swung open as he heard two other shotgun shells go off.

Ryan ran outside where he was quickly reunited by his fellow recruits, each armed with their Benneli's. The four simultaneously chocked their shotguns back, discharging the used shell. They came across more targets, so they used their shotguns to clear them down quickly.

As soon as they came to the end, the four recruits dropped their shotguns on the dirt ground. They immediately whipped out their sidearms and fired at the last few targets. Their M92 sidearms slides locked back, indicating the magazine empty. They all grabbed their spare magazine from their holsters, slid it in, and closed the slides. All four them stopped in their tracks, like they were supposed to, and emptied their magazine at the last targets.

"Put them on safe and holster!" the instructor close by called out.

The instructor was standing on a platform far off to the side away from the crossfire. He jumped down and examined the four remaining targets.

"Not bad," the instructor said to them. He then paused, as if he was listening to something on his radio earpiece. During that time, the four recruits stood there nervously and out of breath. Finally, after a short pause, the instructor looked up at the recruits. "You all passed, outstanding work."

Beta, Grimes, Nathanson, and Perreault all let out a loud 'Hoo-ah!' for their performance. It was their final test of the MOS phase after 15 weeks together. It took a long time but it was finally worth it.

Ryan was happier than ever. He still could not believe that, 39 weeks ago, he just started this kind of training. Only 21 weeks remain until Ryan becomes a Special Forces Operator. Still, the remaining 21 weeks will not be easy.

**16**

_PRESENT DAY_

The next day, the sun was slowly setting over the same valley where Ryan trained the five furries. This time, a large makeshift building stood on the other end. This building was a three-story complex with at leased five rooms per story and a stairway leading all the way up to the roof. However, the Sonic Underground van parked far away at the edge of the forest, the forest leading to the complex.

Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor exited the van one by one wearing their black combat uniforms and carrying MP5's. This time, the submachine guns were actually paintball. Ryan sat on the edge of the van with a map of the valley in his hands. Paper-clipped to the map are several photographs of various random characters on Sonic Underground seen several times.

"Alright, here's the scenario," Ryan explained to them. "With the help of Cyrus, I have contacted other freedom fighter groups to participate in this exercise, armed with paintball guns. There are at leased 20 terrorists within control of a building complex about a kilometer northwest through that forest, they are armed with AK-47's and they have five hostages with them."

Ryan passed out the map of the valley to the five furries; the map has written details on it showing the complex and locations of bad guys and hostages. He then passed over the photographs of the five characters playing as hostages. They seemed familiar in the eyes of the Sonic Underground who have seen them before. Ryan continued the lecture.

"The terrorists are threatening to kill the hostages unless they get a plane out of this country to a country of their choosing within the hour," Ryan said to them. "Your mission is to trek through the forest to the complex without getting spotted, but be aware of two-man patrols in the area. Once you get to the complex building, liberate the hostages and bring them with you onto the roof for extraction. There will be your fellow freedom fighters playing hostages and other freedom fighters will be playing the roles of terrorists, and they will be trying to kill you with paintball guns. I will be grading your performance."

"Sounds like a piece of cake," Sonic said flashing his grin.

"One more thing," Ryan began to say, "There are two ways through to get to the building. There is a dirt path alone the right side of the gorge and a miniature river you can rip right through there. I'm pretty sure your fellow freedom fighters have set up surprises at both of them for you. You hit a tripwire that sends off a flare, you fail. Any ideas?"

"We can go the long path," Sonia suggested. "You explained the easy paths, but you said to us that easy isn't always right."

"True," Ryan said. "Alright, from here on out, you guys are on your own. Good luck," Ryan said to them as he climbed back into the van. Ryan got in the van's driver's seat and drove off, leaving Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor in the valley.

"Okay, guys, let's do it to it," Sonic said to them in his trademark accent and grin. The five loaded the cocked up their MP5 paintball guns. Slung on Manic's back is a paintball gun of an M-24 sniper rifle.

"Okay, single file on point man Cyrus. Go," Sonia said to them. She was designated at the team leader. Cyrus, being the team point man, led the team through the forest slowly toward their objective.

**17**

Not too far away, Ryan parked the van behind a large bush. He climbed out of the driver's seat and sat at a table with a series of television screens. One by one, he flipped each screen on, each one revealing a security camera video display of the makeshift complex with the freedom fighters as bad guys and hostages. At the same time, he activated a timer on the digital clock on the table. Eight minutes and counting.

**18**

Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor slowly crept their way through the forest as quiet as they could, like how they were in training before Manic tripped over the log. As they slowly made their way through the forest, they passed by a two-man patrol unnoticed. Ryan was right; everything they are doing is becoming second nature to them. Ryan also mentioned that the only thing he does not want to be second nature is the trigger squeeze.

As soon as they made it through the forest, they came along the boarder where they finally see the complex. The five dropped prone slowly and stared at it. Sonia pulled out her binoculars and counted the 'hostiles' around the area.

"I count 12 tangos outside, unknown number inside," Sonia whispered. "There is one dynamic entry through the door and several opened windows. Machine gun nest at the one-four corner." Sonia lowered her binoculars and looked around. She spotted a small ridge to the far right of the area. "Manic, take a sniping position up there."

"Yes, ma'am," Manic whispered back. He crawled flat toward the ridge. As soon as he got near the top while staying in the hostiles blind spots, he slipped on his Ghillie suit. Slowly, Manic crawled up to the top but low enough so he does not silhouette the sky. He gently pulled out his M-24 rifle, extended the bipod, and laid it on the grass in front of him.

Meanwhile, the remaining four flat-crawled their way to side two of the complex. Sonia figured the door would have been booby-trapped, so they made the decision to enter in through the window.

Manic stared at the complex windows and saw one room with four so-called bad guys. He soon counted other rooms with at leased one bad guy occupying it.

"Lead, this is Sierra one," Manic whispered in his radio, "I count four hostiles, side one, level two. Must be where the hostages are."

"Roger that, take out the machine gun next on my mark," Sonia whispered. She then turned to Sonic, Cyrus, and Trevor. "Cyrus, Trevor, work your way around both sides two and four, eliminating all hostiles. Sonic, with me, we go inside. Both teams deploy and flash bang and clear."

With that, Cyrus crept around to the back of the complex and circled all the way around to side four. Trevor stayed on the one-two corner. Manic kept his sights fixed on the machine gun nest. Ryan's training is now about to pay off.

**19**

Ryan stared at the security cameras, waiting for a response. He looked at the digital clock and noticed only three minute are remaining.

**20**

Cyrus and Trevor, waiting on adjacent corners are ready to strike. Sonic and Sonia are ready to lead through the window, Sonic with the flash bang grenade in his hand. Manic placed his finger on the trigger ready to fire. The team was ready.

"Three, two, one, go," Sonia whispered in her radio.

Manic squeezed the trigger on his rifle. A single paintball snapped out of the muzzle and impacted the freedom fighter character square in the forehead. He fell backwards playing dead as he rolled away from his fake placed machine gun. The other freedom fighters looked around and noticed the gunner was hit.

"Sierra one, machine gun next eliminated," Manic said in his radio.

All of a sudden, Cyrus and Trevor ran out of the two corners and gunned down all of the remaining freedom fighters outside the building. They were all splattered with paintballs in under seconds.

Sonic and Sonia made their move! Sonic tossed the flash bang grenade through the window and it exploded on impact. Sonia quickly jumped through, soon followed by Sonic. Sonic and Sonia quickly worked their way up through the complex to get the hostages.

**21**

Ryan saw the monitors and was pleased so far. They took out the biggest defensive weapon first and out-flanked the terrorists at the front of the building, all without setting of a trip wire or being detected by the patrols in the forest.

Ryan checked the digital clock and saw only two minutes remaining. He looked back at the monitors after seeing Sonic and Sonia go in through the window. It was silent for at leased a minute and nothing was happening. All of a sudden, Sonic and Sonia ran out on top of the building's roof with the five hostages in tow. Then he saw Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor run in the building to meet Sonic and Sonia on the roof.

"King Six, this is Lead, package is secured," Sonia said over the radios. Ryan grinned and spoke in the radio next to him.

"This is King Six, we are code four, all clear," Ryan said happily in the radio. He checked the time and saw it was only a minute and a half remaining. Not only did they complete the objective within the time limit, the entire operation went very smoothly.

**22**

It was evening at Cyrus' laboratory. Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor sat around at a table wearing their respectable clothes. Each of them was pleased with each other. Suddenly, Sonic's nose snapped when he smelled something familiar and tasty.

Sure enough, Ryan entered in the room carrying a tray full of chili dogs. It was no mistake that any Sonic the Hedgehog fan would know that Sonic loves chili dogs. Ryan himself was not exactly a fan of hot dogs. When he was young, about seven, his grandmother gave him a turkey dog and got violently ill that day. Since then, he has not touched a single hot dog. However, Ryan does love chili, without beans. He mostly prefers extremely spicy foods, anything with a lot of capsaicin. He even used to squeeze a few drops of wasabi sauce on his finger and eat it as a midnight snack. After years of eating spicy foods, he developed some kind of immunity. During a test after his Special Forces training, Ryan was asked to get pepper sprayed, but the pepper spray did not sting Ryan that much. Sure it hurt, but not too much.

Ryan laid the large tray of chili dogs on the table in front of a drooling Sonic. Immediately, Sonic grabbed one and started stuffing his face with it.

"I want to congratulate you guys," Ryan said to the group. "Thank you for asking me to instruct you. I hope you can also teach others what I just taught you for further strikes against Robotnik. The prophecy can't come true in a day, you know. So, let's continue celebrating. You five are officially Green Berets!"

The five furries cheered and hugged each other for that comment. However, the battle with Robotnik was far from over. Ryan helped Sonic and the gang to become better fighters, but he still had one problem to face, he has to get home somehow.

**23**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Fir the first time in 15 weeks, the whole Q-Course group was reunited. Ryan, as well as Beta, Grimes, and Nathanson, entered in the large classroom barracks where they met their other fellow members.

"Hey, Ryan!" a familiar voice called out. Ryan noticed Sergeant Davis in the classroom as well smiling.

"Hey, Robert!" Ryan said as he ran to Davis and gave him a high-five.

"Check it out, I'm an Engineering Sergeant," Davis said happily. Ryan took a seat next to him in the classroom.

"Awesome, man, so you can make explosives?" Ryan asked. Davis nodded with a grin. "And I am your friendly neighborhood Weapons Sergeant." Ryan then looked around and counted the recruits inside. He knew there were 14 when the Q-Course started, but now he noticed two of them are missing. "Hey, we're two light."

"Yeah, Thompson flunked out," Davis said with a slight tone of sadness. "The other guy, I don't know where he is but I'll assume he didn't make it either." Then, one of the recruits, Tanor, approached the two sitting behind them after overhearing their conversation. Tanor had a medical band on his arm, meaning he was a combat medic.

"The other one was Willard," Tanor said. "He flunked out as well, kept mixing up the IV's. But no worried, he got rolled, he gets a second chance."

"Yeah, that's what I heard about Thompson," Davis said leaning back to Tanor.

"Room, attention," one of the recruits called out. Immediately, all 12 recruits snapped up in the position of attention. They soon noticed the nameless Major enter in the room.

"As you were," the Major said. The twelve sat back down. The Major with no name walked up to the podium in the classroom to begin his final lecture. "To those who don't know, recruits Thompson and Willard have been rolled back to a later class. They will not be joining you for the rest of this regiment. Now, I want to proudly state that recruits Adams, Rush, and Samsung are your new 18-Echos, your Communications Sergeants. Nichols and Tanor are your 18-Deltas, Medical Sergeants. Davis, Matthews, and Roselyn have graduated to become 18-Charlies, the Engineering Sergeants. And finally, Beta, Grimes, Nathanson, and Perreault are your team Weapons Sergeants. Good job everybody. Hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-ah!" the class shouted.

"Now, in the next 14 weeks in the collective phase," the Major continued. "There, you will use your MOS training to become an asset to your team and learn teamwork tactics. Gentlemen, please step in!"

Suddenly, the door opened, and walking in are five Special Forces recruits. There was one major difference between these recruits and the ones Ryan is part of. They are officers! One of them is a young Second Lieutenant flashing off his gold bar on his insignia. Two are First Lieutenants flashing a silver bar on their insignias, and the other two are Warrant Officers, flashing a thin silver bar with a single small black square in dead center on their insignia.

"Let me introduce you to Lieutenants Falcon, Wire, and Carpenter," the Major said. "With them are Warrant Officers Brick and Loren. These five just passed their 18-Alpha and 180-Alpha training courses and will be assisting you for the duration of your training. You will follow their leads in the upcoming collective phase. As officers, these men must make the right decisions in hostile environments. However, as enlisted men, you must be able to develop a trust in your officers that, when they give you an order, you do it better than how they said down to the letter. As enlisted men, your officers must trust you to get the job done right, is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," the entire class announced at the same time.

"Outstanding. Get some rest. Come Monday, the collective phase will begin," the Major announced. He the announced one last word. "Dismissed."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	9. Interrogation and Collective I

**CHAPTER 9 **

**Interrogation and Collective I **

**1 **

_FOUR YEARS AGO _

The twelve original recruits gathered around a gazebo where they met five new recruits, three officers and two warrant officers. All 17 of them sat around on bleachers for the opening lecture. Stepping up to them is a familiar face they have all seen before, it was Colonel Samuel Moss, the man they met right after Selection.

"Good morning," Colonel Moss addressed to them.

"Good morning, sir!" the 17 recruits shouted back.

"Congratulations to all of you for completing your Military Occupational Skills course," Moss announced to them. "For the next 14 weeks, the collective phase of your Special Forces training, you will use your new-found individual and MOS skills to become an asset to your team. That is what you men must learn, teamwork. You may think you're ready for combat, but no man can fight a war alone. There is a saying that goes, 'Individuals fails, only teams survive.' That saying is true in our line of work. In every training exercise, you will be randomly selected as team members. However, you will not be training alone. Two positions are not entry-level positions, who know what they are?"

Immediately, Ryan raised his fist in the air with his right arm in the shape of an L. Unlike school, there is a right way and a wrong way to raise your hand. Ryan was doing it the right way.

"Perreault," Moss said. Ryan stood up in front of his bleacher seat in the position of attention.

"The 18-Fox Intelligence Sergeant and the 18-Zulu Operations Sergeant, sir!" Ryan reported.

"Outstanding, Perreault, take a seat," Moss said. Ryan sat back down. "You 17 are all recruits, so obviously none of you are Intelligence or Operations Sergeants, so my senior staff will supply you with our professional Sergeants we have here on base. You treat them with respect, and they will treat you as if they are on your team as well. Who knows, maybe one day, you enlisted men will become an Intelligence or Operations Sergeant some day. Now, we will begin this phase with simple classroom lectures, and then later on today you will use what you learned in the field. We only have one rule, work as a team! Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" the recruits shouted.

"Good. Rise and, in an orderly fashion, report to classroom 4175. Hoo-ah!" Colonel Moss said to them.

"Hoo-ah!" was the recruits' reply just as they were exiting their bleachers.

**2 **

_PRESENT DAY _

In Robotropolis, Robotnik sat at his desk looking over Ryan's profile. There was so much information within the files that Robotnik was upset about and was impressed at the same time. It was hard for Robotnik to read it, but he had to know more about Ryan.

Staff Sergeant Ryan M. Perreault has an outstanding record in the Special Forces. Ryan was first deployed to Afghanistan, after his 18-month Live Environment Training and being promoted from Corporal to Sergeant, just in time to stop a civil unrest rise. Three months into Afghanistan and the civil unrest suppressed, he was sent to Iraq where he and his ODA found a series of underground explosive-making quarters. His team was detached to track down the bomb makers all the way up into Iran. During that time, Ryan and his team were in civilian clothing where they provided over watch and reconnaissance for a small Delta team to make the capture. After his services in Iraq, his ODA was sent to work on a campaign with SEAL Team THREE in Georgia and Azerbaijan, which is where Ryan earned his Purple Heart. While there, Ryan trained Azerbaijani forces to push back invading rogue Russian forces. When the SEALs found out who the rogue Russian general was, Ryan and his ODA were sent in to the South Ossetia region of Georgia to raid the large summer home to capture the general, which was successful. The ODA was ordered to remain as a policing and training force in Armenia until they were called back home to Fort Bragg. Within several months, the ODA was sent back to Iran to help a German KSK unit to rescue hostages from a hijacked German airline at an Iranian airport. Before the rescue operation, former GSG-9 operators trained Ryan's ODA in advanced CQB (Close Quarters Battle). Within three days, Ryan and his team snuck aboard the airline undetected, wearing balaclavas and MP5's and retook the hijacked airline. As a token of reward, Ryan's ODA was sent to Germany to train alongside the GSG-9 counter-terrorism unit. Several months in the training, Ryan himself was top of his class. Due to his expanded education and training, and a good clean record, Ryan was promoted to Staff Sergeant. Once training was over, there was an emergency call back to Iraq. The ODA was sent back to discover that a British Army base was raided and most of the soldiers there were taken prisoner. Along with the British Special Air Service, they were able to track down the location of the prisoners. Due to Ryan's ODA being trained heavily in CQB, they were the first responders inside the prison complex. Ryan's job was to take out the guard towers, which he did without alert. S.A.S. was sent in through the west of the base while Ryan's team went in from the north. They worked their way through to the prison block and met halfway through to liberate the prisoners. Once the prisoners were released, they extracted by V-22 Osprey's just before terrorist reinforcements showed up. Ryan was awarded the Silver Star for that rescue operation. For the rest of the few months, he was sent to Kuwait to train indigenous forces weapons techniques. Suddenly, they get a call from command that an unidentified terrorist organization was about to breach Kuwait City limits. Ryan's ODA, along with friendly Iraqi forces and Marine Force Recon, were able to contain the terrorist unit into a chokepoint. They did recon of the hidden base of operations of the terrorist unit. Ryan, alone, was ordered to sneak in close to a small summer-like home complex and use a laser microphone to record the conversations inside. Ryan's Arabic was so good, he understood that there was a stash of Stinger missiles in the basement. When Ryan gave the report to his commanding officers, it went all the way to Langley, where they decided to send in a small SEAL team to recover them. When the SEALs were sent in the complex, Ryan's ODA stayed outside to provide cover. They heard gunfire inside but the SEAL Team was able to recover the Stingers. With the Stinger missiles captured, the rest of the terrorist organization surrendered and were taken by Ryan and his team back to the American military bases. The captured terrorists revealed that half of the Stinger missiles left the complex before the SEAL raid, but not sure where. After a few days, Marine Force Recon units reported seeing the missing Stingers in a village just on the Iraq-Iran boarders. Ryan's ODA and the Marine unit on sight raided the village and recovered the remaining Stingers with no further losses. After the Stinger missile crisis was over, Ryan's ODA was stated as completed in their Iraqi assignments. They were ordered back to Bragg until needed again. After several weeks have passed of non-stop training in North Carolina, the team was not called back to Iraq or the rest of the Middle East. Ryan requested a vacation witch he received.

The file ended there. Robotnik knew the rest; during Ryan's vacation, he was captured and brought to Robotropolis where he escaped and is now loose on Mobius and has no idea where he is. Robotnik slammed the folder down in disgust. Just as he sighed and leaned back in his chair, the metal doors slid open, and stepping in are Sleet and Dingo.

"What do you two want?" Robotnik asked.

"Well, you see, sir, if we can't fight this guy on the ground, why not try to get rid of him in the air," Sleet said. Robotnik knew what they meant. He figured they could kill him through an air strike, but he did not want Ryan dead yet.

"That's good, but I don't want him dead, just captured so I could robotosize him!" Robotnik said, "Overall, an air capture sounds good. Set it up."

"Already did so, sir. We already set up," Sleet said.

"Well, I did most of it, Sleet just told me to—" Dingo almost said.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Sleet yelled, hitting Dingo behind the head.

**3 **

After the training and test Ryan gave them, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor fell asleep easily. Ryan however, could not sleep. As much as he enjoyed spending the past couple weeks training these furries to be Green Berets, he wanted to get home. Ryan has seen so much scary images and been to scary places in his life. However, none of his past was scarier than being in this cartoon world.

Ryan loves to jog. He found it as a stress reliever, especially during his times in Kuwait. Before leaving, Ryan left a note on the kitchen table explaining where he will be and a radio signal if needed. Ryan grabbed the radio Cyrus made for him, clipped it to his belt of his real-life pants he is wearing, and began his jog outside and into the city of Robotropolis in the early morning. Ryan completely forgot about Robotnik and the risk of getting captured again.

**4 **

_FOUR YEARS AGO _

It has only been a few weeks in the collective course and already everyone is exhausted. None of them were physically exhausted, they were all mentally exhausted. There was so much information that they had to ace on in order to proceed. Every time a soldier enters out into the field, they have to do so many things that sound almost impossible. They had to stay off ridges, watch for shadows, move low to the ground, move in tight patterns but do not bunch up, and so on. Every second that passes in the field gives the recruits headaches. However, their headaches are about to get worse.

All 17 recruits entered in the large barracks classroom and sat at different tables. In front of each seat was a small booklet and a number two pencil. The cover of the booklet had the Special Forces emblem with the crossing arrows and the banner that said De Oppreso Liber. Underneath the emblem had the text 'Special Forces Identification Course.' Up front on the podium is Colonel Moss with a projector behind him.

"Take a seat everyone," Moss said to them. All the recruits did as they were told. "Let's get started. Your role as a Special Forces operator would be to identify targets. These include indigenous personnel, weapons, vehicles, tanks, and aircraft."

The entire class felt uncomfortable. It was more hard work on their brains. Not only did they have to use their smarts to outwit the enemy on the field, now they got to learn how to identify them enemy. They all know where this will lead, the instructors are going to put friendly forces and civilians mannequins in the field and they have to be able to find then, identify them, and execute the command.

"The weapons that Special Forces use include the M4A1, the M92 Beretta, the AT-4, and the new SPR or Special Purpose Rifle," Moss explain while the projector shown slides of each weapon. "The M4A1 is built off of a variant of the aging M16 rifle, yet its firepower packs a powerful punch. It has a collapsible butt stock and has five picatinny rails for add-ons, such as scopes and grenade launchers. The AT-4 is a shoulder-launched recoil-less disposable anti-tank weapons. The SPR is a new sniper weapon built off of an M-16 variant, though its range and accuracy matches that of the most accurate weapon, the Springfield 03."

The projects then shown a series of Kalashnikov rifles, some no one has ever seen before.

"The standard weapon the enemy uses is the AK-47, built after the turn of the Second World War. Newer variants of this weapon is the AK-74U, which is more compact and has a further range. The sniper version is the Dragonov which has high accuracy and further range than all other Kalashnikov's. The common pistol is the Makarov built off of a similarity to the Walther PPK," Colonel Moss explained. "The equivalent to our AT-4 rocket launcher is the RPG-7, or Rocket Propelled Grenade. They are lighter and are able to reload, but lacks in accuracy."

The slides then shown a series of vehicles such as trucks, hummers, armored plated cars, and tanks.

"Next we'll look at vehicles," Moss said to the class. "Being able to identify vehicles is a must when conduction missions like ambushes. To be able to identify a tank, there are several ways, such as the main gun, see if it has a muzzle break, location of the muzzle break, length of the barrel, number of machine guns and hatches, shape of the hull, is it tracked or wheeled, are the tracks supported, and number of support rollers."

This was boggling the recruit's heads. However, they realize that if they were just normal civilians and just started taking this class, they would be confused beyond limits. At leased with the harsh training they went through, they are able to control their stress and understand the lectures.

"Now, let's take a look at aircrafts," Moss said as the projects shown pictures of helicopters. "There are three types of aircraft, fixed winged, variable winged and rotary winged aircraft. We will only focus on rotary winged aircraft for now." The recruits knew that a rotary winged aircraft is better known as a helicopter. "The rotary blades on top of a helicopter have the same dynamic principles as wings, thus they are classified as wings. There are three types of rotary winged aircraft, single, dual, and coaxial. Single helicopters have a single set of blades on top and one smaller set of tail blades in the back. Dual has two sets of main blades one on top of the other spinning in opposite directions. Coaxial are two main blades on top on different sides, both spinning on opposite directions, such as the Chinook. Look out for types of weapons on the helicopter, number of main blades, number of small blades, and the size and shape of the fuselage."

Suddenly, the projector clicked off.

"That's it for this lecture," Moss said to them. "In front of each of you is a booklet with four questions on each page. I will show you a slide witch you will have 15 seconds to study. Then, I will give you 15 seconds to answer the four questions on the page. Sign your name on the front page and let's begin. When you're done, turn it in to me and walk back to your barracks."

Ryan took the number two pencil and signed his name on the front as: 'Cpl. Perreault, Ryan M.' Cpl is the short NATO term for Corporal which is what Ryan is right now. In the corner of his eye, he saw the first slide appear. He looked at it and it was of two indigenous personnel, one with a Dragonov and the other with an RPG on the roof of a desert building. The slide clicked off and Ryan looked at this questions. They seemed simple enough being as multiple choice. The questions were like, what weapon was the guy on the left holding? What time of day did it look like? Was the guy with the RPG standing or crouching? How many rockets was left in his gear pouch?

Ryan actually found the test to be slightly easy. When he looked around at the other recruits, he can tell the others found it simple as well. Any normal civilian without their training would have a hard time, but these men were prepared.

The last slide clicked off. One by one, almost simultaneously, the twelve enlisted recruits and five officers got up and laid their test booklets on the podium in from of Colonel Moss. It was followed by a series of clattering sounds when they slid their pencils in a coffee mug just off to the right of the podium. In a single file, the 17 recruits made their way back to their barracks in hopes for good scores.

**5 **

"I am pleased to announce that all of you passed your tests," Moss announced to them while the recruits were in the recreational room. "Some of you just barely passed and some of you scored perfect 100's. Outstanding! Hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-ah!" the recruits replied.

**6 **

_PRESENT DAY _

Ryan continued to jog down the streets. The weight of his Bates boots kept attempting to slow him down, but they kept increasing the muscle build in his thighs and calves. When all of a sudden, he bumped into Bartlby while turning a corner of a street. He did not literally bump into him. He seemed to have been taking an early morning walk.

"Bartlby?" Ryan said.

"Oh no, you again," Bartlby said sarcastically in his British-like accent. Right next to Bartlby was a dog, a fox, a wolf, a badger, a cat, and a mink, all aristocrats. The same ones he beat up at the party a while ago. The badger has a bandage on his nose, when Ryan broke it. He remembered the injuries he caused the aristocrats and the stares he got while at that party.

"Well look at this, it's the fuck-up squad," Ryan said.

"Fuck this," the cat said as he began to claw Ryan. Ryan instantly grabbed the cat's claw and twisted him around. The cat is now on his knees, back facing Ryan and he is moaning in pain as Ryan is twisting his arm.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" the cat shrieked in pain.

"Apologize to me now," Ryan said.

"Hey, leave him alone," the badger said to Ryan. Ryan clearly saw the white bandage on his nose showing where he hit the badger earlier. In a quick snap, he punched him in the nose again. There was a crack sound as the badger fell backwards.

"My nose!" the badger cried while lying on the floor.

"Now, apologize before you fall asleep," Ryan said. Ryan held the jugular vein of the cat's neck and pinched it half closed. Even through blood was still flowing to the cat's brain, he was slowly feeling light-headed and his vision was becoming gray.

"Fuck you," the cat said in a winded fashion.

"If that's the case," Ryan said. He then flipped the cat over his shoulder, ramming him into the dog hard knocking the wind out of both of them.

The fox ran to Ryan to hurt him, but Ryan grabbed the fox's arm and he used his other arm to knock the fox off his feet and land hard on his back.

The wolf grabbed Ryan by the neck from behind. Ryan instantly grabbed the wolf's leg and flipped him over releasing him. The mink also ran to Ryan to catch him off guard. Too late, Ryan did a spin kick kicking the wind out of the mink and causing the mink to fall on the ground.

Ryan took a look at Bartlby and Bartlby just stood there worriedly.

"If your friends continue this shit, I will also hurt you as well next time," Ryan said threatening Bartlby.

All of a sudden, Ryan heard the familiar whirling of an aircraft above. He looked up and noticed Sleet and Dingo's scorpion aircraft hovering above them at slow speed as if they were searching for something. The huge Sleet and Dingo scorpion aircraft landed on the empty city street. Sleet and Dingo exited the aircraft and walked to Bartlby, Ryan, and the aristocrats lying prone on the ground in pain. Immediate seeing them, Ryan took a step back to put Bartlby's body in between him and the two bounty hunters. Ryan drew out his Heckler & Koch USP sidearm, but can tell that neither Sleet nor Dingo was holding weapons of any kind.

"What the fuck do you two want?" Ryan asked harshly.

"Well, there he is, Sleet," Dingo whispered to Sleet.

"I can see him," Sleet said. He walked to the two, Dingo staying several feet behind. "Hey, Bartlby, what are your opinions on Ryan here?"

"He hurt my friends twice!" Bartlby exclaimed.

"We would give you a few thousand mobiums to turn him over to us," Sleet said.

"Sure thing," Bartlby said. He turned around and quickly tried to grab Ryan. Instantly, Ryan grabbed Bartlby's arm and kicked his legs causing him to trip and fall on his back. Ryan himself also fell on his knees, using Bartlby as a living shield.

"It'll take more than just a weak aristocrat to take me alive," Ryan said.

"I know, that why we have your friends," Dingo said.

Sleet pulled out a hologram projector and turned it on. Showing it are Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor all tied up and the background showed the interior of the scorpion aircraft. However, Ryan was familiar with the Sonic Underground episode 'Friend or Foe' where Sleet and Dingo showed a video of Sonic, Sonia, and Manic planning to steal a chaos emerald from the Floating Island to Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles, of course, fell for it completely unaware that the video was doctored. Ryan, however, was not fooled because he was trained to detect doctored documents, and this was one. Sleet and Dingo's, or whoever made the hologram of the furries tied up, made the mistake of scaling. Sonia was sitting on the ground in front of Sonic which would make her ropes thicker due to being closer, but they were thinner. Also, the color contrast in Manic's green fur, which was really brighter than Sonic's, was almost the same in the hologram. In addition, when Manic fell over the log during training, he left several scratches on his muzzle. Sleet mentioned that they were just captured, meaning Manic would have to have the scratches on his face, but they were not there. Ryan knew this hologram projection was a fake, but he decided to play along and let them think he was fooled.

"What do you say to that?" Sleet asked. "Once this projector is shown to Mobius, the world will have to cower to Robotnik."

"I don't think so, because you've got to deal with me. One question, is that the only film of them?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, we haven't made any copies," Dingo stupidly said.

"What I thought," Ryan said. Instantly, Ryan aimed his sidearm and shot the projector, destroying it into many broken pieces.

"No! Get in the vehicle, Dingo!" Sleet yelled. Both Sleet and Dingo ran to the scorpion. Ryan was about to chase them, but a SWAT Bot came from out of nowhere and grabbed him from behind. Ryan knew that Robotnik was getting better, feeling that he had to take every precaution to capture Ryan the Green Beret. Sleet and Dingo boarded the aircraft, closing the door behind them.

Ryan flipped the bot over his shoulder. Then he ran to the aircraft as it was about to take off. The scorpion lifted into the air, but Ryan aimed his sidearm on a series of grates on the side of the aircraft. These grates had small strands of black smoke puffing out of them, meaning they had to come from the engine. Ryan took aim and shot the grate.

Inside of the aircraft, the gauges went haywire. There were emergency displays of the left engine failure.

"What was that?" Dingo asked.

Sleet looked out the window. "It's that man! He shot out the engine!"

Suddenly, the whole scorpion aircraft started loosing altitude as it tilted on its side. Ryan ran through the streets following it. Even though Ryan lost visual contact with it, he was able to follow the trail of black smoke. The aircraft landed hard on its left side and continued to slide down through a non-busy empty street while spinning counter-clockwise. It stopped when it hit a large pipe coming out of the sewers.

Ryan jumped over piles of debris to reach the smoking tilted aircraft and left a large trailing divot. He approached the wreckage just in time for Sleet to kick open the canopy glass, taking the while frame with it. Sleet crawled out of the opening with a strange-looking laser sidearm in his right hand.

"Freeze!" Ryan shouted. Sleet looked up and noticed Ryan with his USP sidearm fixed on Sleet and slowly side-stepping toward him. "Throw the weapon away!"

Sleet obeyed without hesitation. This confused Ryan; Sleet had the gun aimed in Ryan's general direction. Sleet could have attempted to aim and shoot Ryan. Ryan could have been fast enough to shoot first, but Sleet could have been lucky as well. Yet, Sleet threw the gun away almost instantly, throwing his chance away of shooting Ryan.

Ryan looked at the gun tossed at the side and easily noticed a selector switch on it similar to the one on his sidearm. It was set to the setting called 'stun.' This further confused Ryan because, not only could he have been shot, but he could have been taken alive as well.

Suddenly, all the confusion was gone when Ryan heard the clattering sounds of robot footsteps approaching from behind. In Ryan's experience of watching the show, he knew they were SWAT bots behind him. Ryan took a slow peek behind him and noticed that there were at leased twelve of them, too much for Ryan to try and take out on his own. Slowly, Ryan raised his arms to show he surrendered.

Sleet stood up and took his weapon, fixes the front muzzle on Ryan. He stared at the tall red-headed man with a grin of victory.

"We anticipated you this time, Green Beret," Sleet sneered at Ryan. "Looks like the one and only Special Forces operator lost to us finally." Sleet then noticed a grin form on Ryan's face. Sleet had no idea that Ryan turned Sonic and his friends into Green Berets. However, he was going to find out in seconds.

All of a sudden, Sleet's sidearm laser gun blew up in his hand, immediately followed by the sound of a close-by gunshot. Due to Sleet wearing a glove, the scattered pieces of his gun did not impale his skin, but it did scrape up his glove. The shock also blew Sleet on his back.

In seconds, Sleet looked around and saw five small piles of ruble literally stand up. They were Ghillie suits that looked like rubble ruins trash. The five Ghillie suits opened fire on the SWAT bots on all sides emitting Earth-like gunfire. In seconds, all the SWAT bots dropped to the ground with oil splattering everywhere.

Sleet, laying on his back, looked up to see Ryan standing over him with his own sidearm pointed at him. Ryan returned with a similar grin Sleet gave him seconds ago. The five Ghillie suits ran up to Ryan and circled around Sleet in a half circle with Ryan being the center. The hoods of the Ghillie shuts were pulled off revealing the faces to be Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor. Their faces were painted gray and black in a pattern similar to an older version of the American Army urban camouflage.

"Wait!" Sleet cried out, "I'll tell you anything!"

"Good, that's what we want," Ryan said with a grin. He turned to the furries around him. "Anyone else coming?"

"Negative, no outbound radio signals," Manic said to Ryan. "No one is coming."

Just as Dingo started crawling out of the hatch all dazed from the impact, Sonic and Manic ran to him with their weapons drawn. As Dingo was being taken into custody, Ryan looked down at Sleet and began asking him a series of questions.

"How did you know where to find me?" Ryan asked.

"We kept a SWAT bot air patrol around Robotropolis and several square miles, expanding a search for you," Sleet replied in fear.

"Why do you still want me?"

"Robotnik wants you robotosized."

"Still? After weeks of being away?"

"Yes, he modified the robotosizer so that it will take away your free will but at the same time keep your skills."

"So, Robotnik wants my skills as a Special Forces operator?"

"Yeah, he figured you would make an excellent lackey in the fight against the resistance."

"Robotnik knows he cannot find me, so why is he still looking after a few weeks of being missing?"

"Because no one can hide forever! He knows you cannot get back to your home planet without the Dimensional Matter Displacer."

"The DMD? How do I access it?"

"I don't know, it's on one of Robotnik's computers in his control room," Sleet replied. None of Sleet's facial features twitched, meaning he was telling the truth.

"So, he can go back to Earth whenever he chooses?"

"Not really. It takes a long time for the DMD to charge up before access back to Earth."

"How long?"

"It's been almost three weeks since your arrival to Mobius, I'd say it would be ready in several days."

"Is there a way to cancel its ability to open the portal to and from Earth and Mobius?"

"Yes, but you would have to destroy the computer itself and make sure the resource disc is unable to work."

"That's easy, destroy it, right?"

"No, the disc with the DMD on it is way too strong for heavy machinery. It cannot be destroyed."

Ryan stared at Sleet. Sleet was not lying, but at the same time knew something he did not know. He could always destroy the computer up and right now, but that would destroy the portal from opening, thus destroying his chances of getting back home. Ryan had a plan; he would wait until Robotnik activates it back up, then go in, destroy the computer, and steal the disc with him. That way, the disc on Earth will not have any use on the kind of computers and technology they have. However, he would need a reason for Robotnik to open the portal.

"Sleet, once Robotnik activates the portal, can it be deactivated on command?"

"No," Sleet responded, shaking his head. "It could take at leased an hour before the energy dies down."

"But I saw you activate it back on Earth," Ryan sneered at him, remembering being stunned back on his hometown street. Sleet pulled out that garage door opener contraption and aimed it in the air and, a few feet away, a large blue portal appeared.

"I didn't activate it, I turned off its camouflage. It was always on."

"Tell me, even if the computers with the DMD programs on it are destroyed, will the portal still stand when it is on?"

Sleet responded with a nervous nod, not displaying any signs of lying on his wolf face. This was further giving ideas to Ryan's plan. First, Ryan would have to wait until Robotnik activates it, then he would have to destroy the computer, take the disc, and get back to the portal. It was a one shot chance, but Ryan would have to risk it. If he misses his chance, he might as well be stuck on Mobius forever.

Ryan had to destroy the Dimensional Matter Displacer so that Robotnik could not use it anymore. Ryan was going to be robotosized, but he was lucky enough to be a Special Forces operator and escape. If Robotnik were to capture anyone else, they may not be so lucky and end up being a victim of Robotnik's war machines. He could not let that happen, so he had to prevent Robotnik from ever crossing over to Earth again.

That was it! Ryan had a reason for Robotnik to go after someone else. He will hide out in the one place that Robotnik has no idea about. He will be safe there. Soon, Robotnik will get impatient knowing Ryan was in that location, but soon realize that the portal program was fully charged. He would be forced to open it, and that would be Ryan's chance to destroy the programs and get back home at the same time.

"Sleet," Ryan slowly said looking down at the wolf bounty hunter, "I want you to give Robotnik a message for me. Tell him that I spent the past few weeks teaching Sonic and his friends how to be Green Berets, so now you are up against six, but it doesn't matter. Tell him that I am going off to Sanctuary and I am never coming out. He will never capture me, no matter how hard he tried. Can you give him that message?"

Sleet looked at Ryan confused, but at the same time, nodded.

"Good," Ryan said. He began to slowly back away. "We will all leave you alone now. Go back to Robotnik and tell him what I just told you. Guys, we're leaving them."

Ryan spun on his heel and began walking away. In a heart beat, Sonic sped in front of Ryan with a shocking look on his face.

"Say what?" Sonic asked in his trademark high-pitched confused tone. "You are letting Sleet and Dingo go?"

"Trust me, Sonic," Ryan said. He gave Sonic a wink and a grin. Sonic understood that gesture but still did not fully agree with Ryan's tactic. At the same time, Sonic did trust Ryan's judgment, so he shrugged his shoulders and followed Ryan who continued walking. Soon enough, the other furries followed Ryan out.

Sleet got back on his feet as well as Dingo. The two bounty hunters, still shocked by what just happened, turned tail and ran down the streets of Robotropolis, opposite where Ryan and the others went.

**7 **

_FOUR YEARS AGO _

The 17 Special Forces recruits were getting mentally exhausted, but not to the point where it broke their threshold. There were regular physical training schedules to keep their muscles tones at large. Suddenly, Colonel Moss announced to the recruits that they will be going on a team obstacle course. In other words, in order to pass an obstacle, the whole team must work together. It was possible to complete an obstacle alone, but it would be discouraging to the instructor staff. This obstacle course, what the Marines call the Confidence Course, is a team exercise to demonstrate team work, tactics, and to show that the officers can be leaders as well as the enlisted can do what they are told.

The 17 men stood on a line in the middle of a large flat field with the trees as boarders. They are wearing their combat pants, khaki boots, and light brown T-shirts with no covers. A cover is a military term for a hat. The instructors stood around them and several stood at each obstacle.

"Okay, you men know what to do," Moss told them. "Hydrate and let me know what you're ready." The recruits all took several sips of water from their canteens. One by one, they twisted the caps on and placed them on the ground. This was a sign that they were ready. "Okay, get ready!"

Moss placed the whistle in his mouth and held it with his teeth. Within a few seconds, he blew the whistle hard, echoing a loud pitch throughout the whole flat field. In a dash, all 17 men ran side-by-side in suicidal-like runs toward their first obstacle.

The first obstacle was called 'The Weaver.' The weaver looks like the frames of a house roof with a series of logs evenly spaced apart from another, giving enough space in between each log for a body to slip through. They lead all the way up top a point and then back down through another set of logs. The first recruits to make it there, First Lieutenant Falcon, dove head first through the first log and started to move under and over every other log. In other words, he was 'weaving' through them. Falcon was soon followed by other enlisted men following his lead. Falcon made it to the top and sat on the top log, making sure his recruits were okay. This was a good sign of leadership.

Ryan himself was having a great time. His body was not as muscular as the others, but he does have a ton more stamina than most of the recruits. He easily slithered his way through the logs with ease. Once he made it to the top with Falcon, Ryan almost lost his grip, but his wrist was snatched by, none other than, Sergeant Robert Davis, his buddy. Davis pulled Ryan back up on the log. Falcon, and the other instructors saw that as a sign of team loyalty. Ryan slithered through the logs and stayed the at the end to help the other recruits off. Finally, all 17 recruits were off of the weaver and now they moved on to the next obstacle witch will take a lot of upper-body strength.

The next obstacle was the Confidence Climb, which looked like a ladder to a baby's point of view. There were two steel beams sticking high up in the air with a series of logs leading straight up. They did not have to weave through them, but they had to get to the top, over the top log, and down the other end.

Again, showing leadership, the officers ran to the obstacle and offered to help the enlisted up first. The officers cupped their hands as the enlisted stepped in them and started their climb all the way up. In some places, the log was too high to reach with their regular arm lengths, so fellow recruits helped each other up developing team work.

Ryan was the first to reach the top. To display his loyalty, he sat on the top with the log between his legs. He looked down and noticed he was about 50 feet off the ground. Soon afterward, he started helping his fellow recruits slide over the log and onto the other side. One by one, with the officers following, they all made it down the tall ladder and made the small jump back on ground, jumping in a pile of sawdust.

The 17 continued running toward their next obstacle which was the arm walk. It was like a moving dip. There were two horizontal bars about shoulder-width apart extending to at leased 20 feet and suspended at leased 10 feet in the air. The recruits lined up one by one leading to the arm walk polls. They gripped the bars and used their arms to walk through the long path, adding extra pressure on their biceps, shoulders, and pecs. As they moved, they used their knees for supports, flexing one knee while moving with the opposite arm. One by one, as they made it to the end of the bars, they performed one stationary dip to show they were not the leased bit tired.

The recruits stayed at the end of the bars until the final recruit finished. When all 17 were reunited at the end of the arm walk obstacle, they ran for their next one, which was the swing and jump. Ryan, being one of the fastest ones there, was able to reach the obstacle first. There were two ropes suspended above a tall jog and the recruits had to swing across them over the pit of mud. Fortunately, they get two chances. Ryan dove forward, grabbed on one of the ropes, and his momentum swung him on the other side in one attempt. He stayed behind on the other side and tossed the rope back to them, waiting for his team.

Soon afterward, the recruits started running and winging off the ropes on the other side, and they tossed the ropes back for the other running recruits. This also built reflexes and reactions to make their swing and hand it off to a recruit before they accidentally ended up running in the mud. Fortunately, no one fell in the mud pit. The run continued on to the next obstacle.

The next obstacle was the horizontal ladder. It looks similar to the monkey bars in the playground, only the bars are a lot further apart, thicker in diameter, and the whole thing was suspended ten feet in the air. Again, like the last obstacle, all the recruits lined up behind it, jumped on the log step, jumped onto the first bar, and used their arms to run through it. Just like monkeys, they swung from bar to bar in smooth motions, as opposed to jerky starts and stops. All on a line, the twelve enlisted and five officers swung their way down the long path in single file toward the end. One by one, they all dropped off at the end, landing in a patch of sawdust. They all gathered around the end waiting fro the last recruit to drop off. As soon as he did, the 17 made their mad dash runs toward the last obstacle.

The last obstacle is simply dubbed 'The Tough One.' With one simple glance at this obstacle, it should be called 'The Impossible One' but it is really not impossible. The whole obstacle starts off with a low log used to reach a rope. The rope leads to a suspended walk-able platform with logs, each evenly spaced apart. The platform of logs lead up to a tall ladder similar to the ladder they encountered earlier but smaller. At the top of this ladder is a rope suspended in the air leading down the 50 feet to the bottom.

The recruits slowed down as Lieutenant Falcon jumped up to demonstrate to his team that the obstacle is not hard. Falcon climbed up the rope leading to the top and on the log platform. He sat on one of the logs and gestured the team to follow suit. One at a time, the recruits climbed up the ropes leading the large platform. Ryan had a little trouble and would have fallen off it was not for Davis' catch. Davis pushed Ryan up onto the log platform, in return he helped pull Davis up with him.

Soon enough, all 17 recruits were at the top and ready to finish. On their own, they ran along the logs toward the ladder quickly. Each one cupped their hands to help each other up the tall ladder, leading to the pillar with the suspended rope. First one up the top of the ladder was Ryan. He was sure he kept one hand and one foot on the ladder as he climbed up. Once Ryan reached the second long from the top, he sat on it and held on the ladder uprights with both arms. He used his boot to grab the rope and bring it closer to him. He grabbed with rope with his hands, then with his boots, and slowly climbed his way down with one hand and boot under the other. Sliding was prohibited this time. As Ryan was descending, he looked up and saw his fellow recruits on the rope above him descending.

Ryan dropped down in the pile of sawdust bellow. He stepped away and helped any recruits trying to get off. Soon enough, the last one off was Lieutenant Falcon who displayed outstanding leadership throughout the course. Falcon was the first one on the first obstacle, the weaver, and was the last one off the last obstacle, the tough one.

As soon as all the recruits were reunited at the end, Colonel Moss blew his whistle as he approached the high-fiving recruits.

"Okay, everyone, take a knee," Moss told them. The recruits gathered around Moss on one knee. "Outstanding work, you displayed good teamwork and you worked together well. Officers, especially Lieutenant Falcon, I'm proud of you guys for displaying good leadership to get your team through. I saw a few mishaps where you worked alone, but you overall did an outstanding job. Hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-ah!" the recruits shouted in glee.

**8 **

_PRESENT DAY _

That night, back at the Underground Base, Ryan explained to the five furries of his plan. The only problem is it will have to wait a few days before it can actually be taken into effect.

"Good idea, Ryan," Sonia said with glee as she sat on the couch next to the tall red-headed man in the American digital-pattern camouflage pants.

"Dude, you honestly think that is going to work?" Manic asked. All five furries are wearing their current trademark clothes.

"It has to," Ryan said. "Maybe the execution of the plan might go awry, but the plan itself is perfect. We just got to hope that Robotnik will feel like he has to try and get someone else."

"But, Ryan, if this doesn't work, he will have you and some other civilian from Earth," Cyrus explained.

"Cyrus, I'm no civilian," Ryan replied with a chuckle. When Ryan joined the United States Army, he signed away of his legal American civilian-hood. He was still American, but at the same time, a government weapon.

"Right, right," Cyrus nodded, standing corrected.

"So, tomorrow night, let's be off for Sanctuary," Ryan said to them. "Night because I don't want Robotnik's goons to follow."

Sanctuary was a place in the great forest of Mobius where most of the freedom fighters hang out. Only a small few are allowed to know of their location on any map. They kept it as a place to keep their children safe. Luckily for Ryan, the hedgehogs knew of Sanctuary's location. When Ryan first saw Sanctuary on an episode of the show, he noticed it looked very similar to Knothole village from the 1993 Sonic show simply titled 'Sonic the Hedgehogs' but dubbed by fans as 'SatAM.'

The six went off to their bedrooms for a good night sleep. Ryan kicked off his boots, exposing his dark green wool socks, and laid down in the guest bed, the same guest bed he slept on in his first night on Mobius. He felt to cushions and mattress and easily remembered being captured and escaping from Robotnik fortress. He felt homesick, but at the same time enjoying his stay. He has been away from home for so long; it was almost as if he forgot what it felt like to be back in Massachusetts. The only downside of his home state was that it was the strictest state in the country when it comes to gun laws, and Ryan is a gun-fanatic. It did not matter, he wished to be back home and soon.

TO BE CONTINUED...

**CHAPTER 9 **

**Interrogation and Collective I **

**1 **

_FOUR YEARS AGO _

The twelve original recruits gathered around a gazebo where they met five new recruits, three officers and two warrant officers. All 17 of them sat around on bleachers for the opening lecture. Stepping up to them is a familiar face they have all seen before, it was Colonel Samuel Moss, the man they met right after Selection.

"Good morning," Colonel Moss addressed to them.

"Good morning, sir!" the 17 recruits shouted back.

"Congratulations to all of you for completing your Military Occupational Skills course," Moss announced to them. "For the next 14 weeks, the collective phase of your Special Forces training, you will use your new-found individual and MOS skills to become an asset to your team. That is what you men must learn, teamwork. You may think you're ready for combat, but no man can fight a war alone. There is a saying that goes, 'Individuals fails, only teams survive.' That saying is true in our line of work. In every training exercise, you will be randomly selected as team members. However, you will not be training alone. Two positions are not entry-level positions, who know what they are?"

Immediately, Ryan raised his fist in the air with his right arm in the shape of an L. Unlike school, there is a right way and a wrong way to raise your hand. Ryan was doing it the right way.

"Perreault," Moss said. Ryan stood up in front of his bleacher seat in the position of attention.

"The 18-Fox Intelligence Sergeant and the 18-Zulu Operations Sergeant, sir!" Ryan reported.

"Outstanding, Perreault, take a seat," Moss said. Ryan sat back down. "You 17 are all recruits, so obviously none of you are Intelligence or Operations Sergeants, so my senior staff will supply you with our professional Sergeants we have here on base. You treat them with respect, and they will treat you as if they are on your team as well. Who knows, maybe one day, you enlisted men will become an Intelligence or Operations Sergeant some day. Now, we will begin this phase with simple classroom lectures, and then later on today you will use what you learned in the field. We only have one rule, work as a team! Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" the recruits shouted.

"Good. Rise and, in an orderly fashion, report to classroom 4175. Hoo-ah!" Colonel Moss said to them.

"Hoo-ah!" was the recruits' reply just as they were exiting their bleachers.

**2 **

_PRESENT DAY _

In Robotropolis, Robotnik sat at his desk looking over Ryan's profile. There was so much information within the files that Robotnik was upset about and was impressed at the same time. It was hard for Robotnik to read it, but he had to know more about Ryan.

Staff Sergeant Ryan M. Perreault has an outstanding record in the Special Forces. Ryan was first deployed to Afghanistan, after his 18-month Live Environment Training and being promoted from Corporal to Sergeant, just in time to stop a civil unrest rise. Three months into Afghanistan and the civil unrest suppressed, he was sent to Iraq where he and his ODA found a series of underground explosive-making quarters. His team was detached to track down the bomb makers all the way up into Iran. During that time, Ryan and his team were in civilian clothing where they provided over watch and reconnaissance for a small Delta team to make the capture. After his services in Iraq, his ODA was sent to work on a campaign with SEAL Team THREE in Georgia and Azerbaijan, which is where Ryan earned his Purple Heart. While there, Ryan trained Azerbaijani forces to push back invading rogue Russian forces. When the SEALs found out who the rogue Russian general was, Ryan and his ODA were sent in to the South Ossetia region of Georgia to raid the large summer home to capture the general, which was successful. The ODA was ordered to remain as a policing and training force in Armenia until they were called back home to Fort Bragg. Within several months, the ODA was sent back to Iran to help a German KSK unit to rescue hostages from a hijacked German airline at an Iranian airport. Before the rescue operation, former GSG-9 operators trained Ryan's ODA in advanced CQB (Close Quarters Battle). Within three days, Ryan and his team snuck aboard the airline undetected, wearing balaclavas and MP5's and retook the hijacked airline. As a token of reward, Ryan's ODA was sent to Germany to train alongside the GSG-9 counter-terrorism unit. Several months in the training, Ryan himself was top of his class. Due to his expanded education and training, and a good clean record, Ryan was promoted to Staff Sergeant. Once training was over, there was an emergency call back to Iraq. The ODA was sent back to discover that a British Army base was raided and most of the soldiers there were taken prisoner. Along with the British Special Air Service, they were able to track down the location of the prisoners. Due to Ryan's ODA being trained heavily in CQB, they were the first responders inside the prison complex. Ryan's job was to take out the guard towers, which he did without alert. S.A.S. was sent in through the west of the base while Ryan's team went in from the north. They worked their way through to the prison block and met halfway through to liberate the prisoners. Once the prisoners were released, they extracted by V-22 Osprey's just before terrorist reinforcements showed up. Ryan was awarded the Silver Star for that rescue operation. For the rest of the few months, he was sent to Kuwait to train indigenous forces weapons techniques. Suddenly, they get a call from command that an unidentified terrorist organization was about to breach Kuwait City limits. Ryan's ODA, along with friendly Iraqi forces and Marine Force Recon, were able to contain the terrorist unit into a chokepoint. They did recon of the hidden base of operations of the terrorist unit. Ryan, alone, was ordered to sneak in close to a small summer-like home complex and use a laser microphone to record the conversations inside. Ryan's Arabic was so good, he understood that there was a stash of Stinger missiles in the basement. When Ryan gave the report to his commanding officers, it went all the way to Langley, where they decided to send in a small SEAL team to recover them. When the SEALs were sent in the complex, Ryan's ODA stayed outside to provide cover. They heard gunfire inside but the SEAL Team was able to recover the Stingers. With the Stinger missiles captured, the rest of the terrorist organization surrendered and were taken by Ryan and his team back to the American military bases. The captured terrorists revealed that half of the Stinger missiles left the complex before the SEAL raid, but not sure where. After a few days, Marine Force Recon units reported seeing the missing Stingers in a village just on the Iraq-Iran boarders. Ryan's ODA and the Marine unit on sight raided the village and recovered the remaining Stingers with no further losses. After the Stinger missile crisis was over, Ryan's ODA was stated as completed in their Iraqi assignments. They were ordered back to Bragg until needed again. After several weeks have passed of non-stop training in North Carolina, the team was not called back to Iraq or the rest of the Middle East. Ryan requested a vacation witch he received.

The file ended there. Robotnik knew the rest; during Ryan's vacation, he was captured and brought to Robotropolis where he escaped and is now loose on Mobius and has no idea where he is. Robotnik slammed the folder down in disgust. Just as he sighed and leaned back in his chair, the metal doors slid open, and stepping in are Sleet and Dingo.

"What do you two want?" Robotnik asked.

"Well, you see, sir, if we can't fight this guy on the ground, why not try to get rid of him in the air," Sleet said. Robotnik knew what they meant. He figured they could kill him through an air strike, but he did not want Ryan dead yet.

"That's good, but I don't want him dead, just captured so I could robotosize him!" Robotnik said, "Overall, an air capture sounds good. Set it up."

"Already did so, sir. We already set up," Sleet said.

"Well, I did most of it, Sleet just told me to—" Dingo almost said.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Sleet yelled, hitting Dingo behind the head.

**3 **

After the training and test Ryan gave them, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor fell asleep easily. Ryan however, could not sleep. As much as he enjoyed spending the past couple weeks training these furries to be Green Berets, he wanted to get home. Ryan has seen so much scary images and been to scary places in his life. However, none of his past was scarier than being in this cartoon world.

Ryan loves to jog. He found it as a stress reliever, especially during his times in Kuwait. Before leaving, Ryan left a note on the kitchen table explaining where he will be and a radio signal if needed. Ryan grabbed the radio Cyrus made for him, clipped it to his belt of his real-life pants he is wearing, and began his jog outside and into the city of Robotropolis in the early morning. Ryan completely forgot about Robotnik and the risk of getting captured again.

**4 **

_FOUR YEARS AGO _

It has only been a few weeks in the collective course and already everyone is exhausted. None of them were physically exhausted, they were all mentally exhausted. There was so much information that they had to ace on in order to proceed. Every time a soldier enters out into the field, they have to do so many things that sound almost impossible. They had to stay off ridges, watch for shadows, move low to the ground, move in tight patterns but do not bunch up, and so on. Every second that passes in the field gives the recruits headaches. However, their headaches are about to get worse.

All 17 recruits entered in the large barracks classroom and sat at different tables. In front of each seat was a small booklet and a number two pencil. The cover of the booklet had the Special Forces emblem with the crossing arrows and the banner that said De Oppreso Liber. Underneath the emblem had the text 'Special Forces Identification Course.' Up front on the podium is Colonel Moss with a projector behind him.

"Take a seat everyone," Moss said to them. All the recruits did as they were told. "Let's get started. Your role as a Special Forces operator would be to identify targets. These include indigenous personnel, weapons, vehicles, tanks, and aircraft."

The entire class felt uncomfortable. It was more hard work on their brains. Not only did they have to use their smarts to outwit the enemy on the field, now they got to learn how to identify them enemy. They all know where this will lead, the instructors are going to put friendly forces and civilians mannequins in the field and they have to be able to find then, identify them, and execute the command.

"The weapons that Special Forces use include the M4A1, the M92 Beretta, the AT-4, and the new SPR or Special Purpose Rifle," Moss explain while the projector shown slides of each weapon. "The M4A1 is built off of a variant of the aging M16 rifle, yet its firepower packs a powerful punch. It has a collapsible butt stock and has five picatinny rails for add-ons, such as scopes and grenade launchers. The AT-4 is a shoulder-launched recoil-less disposable anti-tank weapons. The SPR is a new sniper weapon built off of an M-16 variant, though its range and accuracy matches that of the most accurate weapon, the Springfield 03."

The projects then shown a series of Kalashnikov rifles, some no one has ever seen before.

"The standard weapon the enemy uses is the AK-47, built after the turn of the Second World War. Newer variants of this weapon is the AK-74U, which is more compact and has a further range. The sniper version is the Dragonov which has high accuracy and further range than all other Kalashnikov's. The common pistol is the Makarov built off of a similarity to the Walther PPK," Colonel Moss explained. "The equivalent to our AT-4 rocket launcher is the RPG-7, or Rocket Propelled Grenade. They are lighter and are able to reload, but lacks in accuracy."

The slides then shown a series of vehicles such as trucks, hummers, armored plated cars, and tanks.

"Next we'll look at vehicles," Moss said to the class. "Being able to identify vehicles is a must when conduction missions like ambushes. To be able to identify a tank, there are several ways, such as the main gun, see if it has a muzzle break, location of the muzzle break, length of the barrel, number of machine guns and hatches, shape of the hull, is it tracked or wheeled, are the tracks supported, and number of support rollers."

This was boggling the recruit's heads. However, they realize that if they were just normal civilians and just started taking this class, they would be confused beyond limits. At leased with the harsh training they went through, they are able to control their stress and understand the lectures.

"Now, let's take a look at aircrafts," Moss said as the projects shown pictures of helicopters. "There are three types of aircraft, fixed winged, variable winged and rotary winged aircraft. We will only focus on rotary winged aircraft for now." The recruits knew that a rotary winged aircraft is better known as a helicopter. "The rotary blades on top of a helicopter have the same dynamic principles as wings, thus they are classified as wings. There are three types of rotary winged aircraft, single, dual, and coaxial. Single helicopters have a single set of blades on top and one smaller set of tail blades in the back. Dual has two sets of main blades one on top of the other spinning in opposite directions. Coaxial are two main blades on top on different sides, both spinning on opposite directions, such as the Chinook. Look out for types of weapons on the helicopter, number of main blades, number of small blades, and the size and shape of the fuselage."

Suddenly, the projector clicked off.

"That's it for this lecture," Moss said to them. "In front of each of you is a booklet with four questions on each page. I will show you a slide witch you will have 15 seconds to study. Then, I will give you 15 seconds to answer the four questions on the page. Sign your name on the front page and let's begin. When you're done, turn it in to me and walk back to your barracks."

Ryan took the number two pencil and signed his name on the front as: 'Cpl. Perreault, Ryan M.' Cpl is the short NATO term for Corporal which is what Ryan is right now. In the corner of his eye, he saw the first slide appear. He looked at it and it was of two indigenous personnel, one with a Dragonov and the other with an RPG on the roof of a desert building. The slide clicked off and Ryan looked at this questions. They seemed simple enough being as multiple choice. The questions were like, what weapon was the guy on the left holding? What time of day did it look like? Was the guy with the RPG standing or crouching? How many rockets was left in his gear pouch?

Ryan actually found the test to be slightly easy. When he looked around at the other recruits, he can tell the others found it simple as well. Any normal civilian without their training would have a hard time, but these men were prepared.

The last slide clicked off. One by one, almost simultaneously, the twelve enlisted recruits and five officers got up and laid their test booklets on the podium in from of Colonel Moss. It was followed by a series of clattering sounds when they slid their pencils in a coffee mug just off to the right of the podium. In a single file, the 17 recruits made their way back to their barracks in hopes for good scores.

**5 **

"I am pleased to announce that all of you passed your tests," Moss announced to them while the recruits were in the recreational room. "Some of you just barely passed and some of you scored perfect 100's. Outstanding! Hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-ah!" the recruits replied.

**6 **

_PRESENT DAY _

Ryan continued to jog down the streets. The weight of his Bates boots kept attempting to slow him down, but they kept increasing the muscle build in his thighs and calves. When all of a sudden, he bumped into Bartlby while turning a corner of a street. He did not literally bump into him. He seemed to have been taking an early morning walk.

"Bartlby?" Ryan said.

"Oh no, you again," Bartlby said sarcastically in his British-like accent. Right next to Bartlby was a dog, a fox, a wolf, a badger, a cat, and a mink, all aristocrats. The same ones he beat up at the party a while ago. The badger has a bandage on his nose, when Ryan broke it. He remembered the injuries he caused the aristocrats and the stares he got while at that party.

"Well look at this, it's the fuck-up squad," Ryan said.

"Fuck this," the cat said as he began to claw Ryan. Ryan instantly grabbed the cat's claw and twisted him around. The cat is now on his knees, back facing Ryan and he is moaning in pain as Ryan is twisting his arm.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" the cat shrieked in pain.

"Apologize to me now," Ryan said.

"Hey, leave him alone," the badger said to Ryan. Ryan clearly saw the white bandage on his nose showing where he hit the badger earlier. In a quick snap, he punched him in the nose again. There was a crack sound as the badger fell backwards.

"My nose!" the badger cried while lying on the floor.

"Now, apologize before you fall asleep," Ryan said. Ryan held the jugular vein of the cat's neck and pinched it half closed. Even through blood was still flowing to the cat's brain, he was slowly feeling light-headed and his vision was becoming gray.

"Fuck you," the cat said in a winded fashion.

"If that's the case," Ryan said. He then flipped the cat over his shoulder, ramming him into the dog hard knocking the wind out of both of them.

The fox ran to Ryan to hurt him, but Ryan grabbed the fox's arm and he used his other arm to knock the fox off his feet and land hard on his back.

The wolf grabbed Ryan by the neck from behind. Ryan instantly grabbed the wolf's leg and flipped him over releasing him. The mink also ran to Ryan to catch him off guard. Too late, Ryan did a spin kick kicking the wind out of the mink and causing the mink to fall on the ground.

Ryan took a look at Bartlby and Bartlby just stood there worriedly.

"If your friends continue this shit, I will also hurt you as well next time," Ryan said threatening Bartlby.

All of a sudden, Ryan heard the familiar whirling of an aircraft above. He looked up and noticed Sleet and Dingo's scorpion aircraft hovering above them at slow speed as if they were searching for something. The huge Sleet and Dingo scorpion aircraft landed on the empty city street. Sleet and Dingo exited the aircraft and walked to Bartlby, Ryan, and the aristocrats lying prone on the ground in pain. Immediate seeing them, Ryan took a step back to put Bartlby's body in between him and the two bounty hunters. Ryan drew out his Heckler & Koch USP sidearm, but can tell that neither Sleet nor Dingo was holding weapons of any kind.

"What the fuck do you two want?" Ryan asked harshly.

"Well, there he is, Sleet," Dingo whispered to Sleet.

"I can see him," Sleet said. He walked to the two, Dingo staying several feet behind. "Hey, Bartlby, what are your opinions on Ryan here?"

"He hurt my friends twice!" Bartlby exclaimed.

"We would give you a few thousand mobiums to turn him over to us," Sleet said.

"Sure thing," Bartlby said. He turned around and quickly tried to grab Ryan. Instantly, Ryan grabbed Bartlby's arm and kicked his legs causing him to trip and fall on his back. Ryan himself also fell on his knees, using Bartlby as a living shield.

"It'll take more than just a weak aristocrat to take me alive," Ryan said.

"I know, that why we have your friends," Dingo said.

Sleet pulled out a hologram projector and turned it on. Showing it are Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor all tied up and the background showed the interior of the scorpion aircraft. However, Ryan was familiar with the Sonic Underground episode 'Friend or Foe' where Sleet and Dingo showed a video of Sonic, Sonia, and Manic planning to steal a chaos emerald from the Floating Island to Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles, of course, fell for it completely unaware that the video was doctored. Ryan, however, was not fooled because he was trained to detect doctored documents, and this was one. Sleet and Dingo's, or whoever made the hologram of the furries tied up, made the mistake of scaling. Sonia was sitting on the ground in front of Sonic which would make her ropes thicker due to being closer, but they were thinner. Also, the color contrast in Manic's green fur, which was really brighter than Sonic's, was almost the same in the hologram. In addition, when Manic fell over the log during training, he left several scratches on his muzzle. Sleet mentioned that they were just captured, meaning Manic would have to have the scratches on his face, but they were not there. Ryan knew this hologram projection was a fake, but he decided to play along and let them think he was fooled.

"What do you say to that?" Sleet asked. "Once this projector is shown to Mobius, the world will have to cower to Robotnik."

"I don't think so, because you've got to deal with me. One question, is that the only film of them?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, we haven't made any copies," Dingo stupidly said.

"What I thought," Ryan said. Instantly, Ryan aimed his sidearm and shot the projector, destroying it into many broken pieces.

"No! Get in the vehicle, Dingo!" Sleet yelled. Both Sleet and Dingo ran to the scorpion. Ryan was about to chase them, but a SWAT Bot came from out of nowhere and grabbed him from behind. Ryan knew that Robotnik was getting better, feeling that he had to take every precaution to capture Ryan the Green Beret. Sleet and Dingo boarded the aircraft, closing the door behind them.

Ryan flipped the bot over his shoulder. Then he ran to the aircraft as it was about to take off. The scorpion lifted into the air, but Ryan aimed his sidearm on a series of grates on the side of the aircraft. These grates had small strands of black smoke puffing out of them, meaning they had to come from the engine. Ryan took aim and shot the grate.

Inside of the aircraft, the gauges went haywire. There were emergency displays of the left engine failure.

"What was that?" Dingo asked.

Sleet looked out the window. "It's that man! He shot out the engine!"

Suddenly, the whole scorpion aircraft started loosing altitude as it tilted on its side. Ryan ran through the streets following it. Even though Ryan lost visual contact with it, he was able to follow the trail of black smoke. The aircraft landed hard on its left side and continued to slide down through a non-busy empty street while spinning counter-clockwise. It stopped when it hit a large pipe coming out of the sewers.

Ryan jumped over piles of debris to reach the smoking tilted aircraft and left a large trailing divot. He approached the wreckage just in time for Sleet to kick open the canopy glass, taking the while frame with it. Sleet crawled out of the opening with a strange-looking laser sidearm in his right hand.

"Freeze!" Ryan shouted. Sleet looked up and noticed Ryan with his USP sidearm fixed on Sleet and slowly side-stepping toward him. "Throw the weapon away!"

Sleet obeyed without hesitation. This confused Ryan; Sleet had the gun aimed in Ryan's general direction. Sleet could have attempted to aim and shoot Ryan. Ryan could have been fast enough to shoot first, but Sleet could have been lucky as well. Yet, Sleet threw the gun away almost instantly, throwing his chance away of shooting Ryan.

Ryan looked at the gun tossed at the side and easily noticed a selector switch on it similar to the one on his sidearm. It was set to the setting called 'stun.' This further confused Ryan because, not only could he have been shot, but he could have been taken alive as well.

Suddenly, all the confusion was gone when Ryan heard the clattering sounds of robot footsteps approaching from behind. In Ryan's experience of watching the show, he knew they were SWAT bots behind him. Ryan took a slow peek behind him and noticed that there were at leased twelve of them, too much for Ryan to try and take out on his own. Slowly, Ryan raised his arms to show he surrendered.

Sleet stood up and took his weapon, fixes the front muzzle on Ryan. He stared at the tall red-headed man with a grin of victory.

"We anticipated you this time, Green Beret," Sleet sneered at Ryan. "Looks like the one and only Special Forces operator lost to us finally." Sleet then noticed a grin form on Ryan's face. Sleet had no idea that Ryan turned Sonic and his friends into Green Berets. However, he was going to find out in seconds.

All of a sudden, Sleet's sidearm laser gun blew up in his hand, immediately followed by the sound of a close-by gunshot. Due to Sleet wearing a glove, the scattered pieces of his gun did not impale his skin, but it did scrape up his glove. The shock also blew Sleet on his back.

In seconds, Sleet looked around and saw five small piles of ruble literally stand up. They were Ghillie suits that looked like rubble ruins trash. The five Ghillie suits opened fire on the SWAT bots on all sides emitting Earth-like gunfire. In seconds, all the SWAT bots dropped to the ground with oil splattering everywhere.

Sleet, laying on his back, looked up to see Ryan standing over him with his own sidearm pointed at him. Ryan returned with a similar grin Sleet gave him seconds ago. The five Ghillie suits ran up to Ryan and circled around Sleet in a half circle with Ryan being the center. The hoods of the Ghillie shuts were pulled off revealing the faces to be Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor. Their faces were painted gray and black in a pattern similar to an older version of the American Army urban camouflage.

"Wait!" Sleet cried out, "I'll tell you anything!"

"Good, that's what we want," Ryan said with a grin. He turned to the furries around him. "Anyone else coming?"

"Negative, no outbound radio signals," Manic said to Ryan. "No one is coming."

Just as Dingo started crawling out of the hatch all dazed from the impact, Sonic and Manic ran to him with their weapons drawn. As Dingo was being taken into custody, Ryan looked down at Sleet and began asking him a series of questions.

"How did you know where to find me?" Ryan asked.

"We kept a SWAT bot air patrol around Robotropolis and several square miles, expanding a search for you," Sleet replied in fear.

"Why do you still want me?"

"Robotnik wants you robotosized."

"Still? After weeks of being away?"

"Yes, he modified the robotosizer so that it will take away your free will but at the same time keep your skills."

"So, Robotnik wants my skills as a Special Forces operator?"

"Yeah, he figured you would make an excellent lackey in the fight against the resistance."

"Robotnik knows he cannot find me, so why is he still looking after a few weeks of being missing?"

"Because no one can hide forever! He knows you cannot get back to your home planet without the Dimensional Matter Displacer."

"The DMD? How do I access it?"

"I don't know, it's on one of Robotnik's computers in his control room," Sleet replied. None of Sleet's facial features twitched, meaning he was telling the truth.

"So, he can go back to Earth whenever he chooses?"

"Not really. It takes a long time for the DMD to charge up before access back to Earth."

"How long?"

"It's been almost three weeks since your arrival to Mobius, I'd say it would be ready in several days."

"Is there a way to cancel its ability to open the portal to and from Earth and Mobius?"

"Yes, but you would have to destroy the computer itself and make sure the resource disc is unable to work."

"That's easy, destroy it, right?"

"No, the disc with the DMD on it is way too strong for heavy machinery. It cannot be destroyed."

Ryan stared at Sleet. Sleet was not lying, but at the same time knew something he did not know. He could always destroy the computer up and right now, but that would destroy the portal from opening, thus destroying his chances of getting back home. Ryan had a plan; he would wait until Robotnik activates it back up, then go in, destroy the computer, and steal the disc with him. That way, the disc on Earth will not have any use on the kind of computers and technology they have. However, he would need a reason for Robotnik to open the portal.

"Sleet, once Robotnik activates the portal, can it be deactivated on command?"

"No," Sleet responded, shaking his head. "It could take at leased an hour before the energy dies down."

"But I saw you activate it back on Earth," Ryan sneered at him, remembering being stunned back on his hometown street. Sleet pulled out that garage door opener contraption and aimed it in the air and, a few feet away, a large blue portal appeared.

"I didn't activate it, I turned off its camouflage. It was always on."

"Tell me, even if the computers with the DMD programs on it are destroyed, will the portal still stand when it is on?"

Sleet responded with a nervous nod, not displaying any signs of lying on his wolf face. This was further giving ideas to Ryan's plan. First, Ryan would have to wait until Robotnik activates it, then he would have to destroy the computer, take the disc, and get back to the portal. It was a one shot chance, but Ryan would have to risk it. If he misses his chance, he might as well be stuck on Mobius forever.

Ryan had to destroy the Dimensional Matter Displacer so that Robotnik could not use it anymore. Ryan was going to be robotosized, but he was lucky enough to be a Special Forces operator and escape. If Robotnik were to capture anyone else, they may not be so lucky and end up being a victim of Robotnik's war machines. He could not let that happen, so he had to prevent Robotnik from ever crossing over to Earth again.

That was it! Ryan had a reason for Robotnik to go after someone else. He will hide out in the one place that Robotnik has no idea about. He will be safe there. Soon, Robotnik will get impatient knowing Ryan was in that location, but soon realize that the portal program was fully charged. He would be forced to open it, and that would be Ryan's chance to destroy the programs and get back home at the same time.

"Sleet," Ryan slowly said looking down at the wolf bounty hunter, "I want you to give Robotnik a message for me. Tell him that I spent the past few weeks teaching Sonic and his friends how to be Green Berets, so now you are up against six, but it doesn't matter. Tell him that I am going off to Sanctuary and I am never coming out. He will never capture me, no matter how hard he tried. Can you give him that message?"

Sleet looked at Ryan confused, but at the same time, nodded.

"Good," Ryan said. He began to slowly back away. "We will all leave you alone now. Go back to Robotnik and tell him what I just told you. Guys, we're leaving them."

Ryan spun on his heel and began walking away. In a heart beat, Sonic sped in front of Ryan with a shocking look on his face.

"Say what?" Sonic asked in his trademark high-pitched confused tone. "You are letting Sleet and Dingo go?"

"Trust me, Sonic," Ryan said. He gave Sonic a wink and a grin. Sonic understood that gesture but still did not fully agree with Ryan's tactic. At the same time, Sonic did trust Ryan's judgment, so he shrugged his shoulders and followed Ryan who continued walking. Soon enough, the other furries followed Ryan out.

Sleet got back on his feet as well as Dingo. The two bounty hunters, still shocked by what just happened, turned tail and ran down the streets of Robotropolis, opposite where Ryan and the others went.

**7 **

_FOUR YEARS AGO _

The 17 Special Forces recruits were getting mentally exhausted, but not to the point where it broke their threshold. There were regular physical training schedules to keep their muscles tones at large. Suddenly, Colonel Moss announced to the recruits that they will be going on a team obstacle course. In other words, in order to pass an obstacle, the whole team must work together. It was possible to complete an obstacle alone, but it would be discouraging to the instructor staff. This obstacle course, what the Marines call the Confidence Course, is a team exercise to demonstrate team work, tactics, and to show that the officers can be leaders as well as the enlisted can do what they are told.

The 17 men stood on a line in the middle of a large flat field with the trees as boarders. They are wearing their combat pants, khaki boots, and light brown T-shirts with no covers. A cover is a military term for a hat. The instructors stood around them and several stood at each obstacle.

"Okay, you men know what to do," Moss told them. "Hydrate and let me know what you're ready." The recruits all took several sips of water from their canteens. One by one, they twisted the caps on and placed them on the ground. This was a sign that they were ready. "Okay, get ready!"

Moss placed the whistle in his mouth and held it with his teeth. Within a few seconds, he blew the whistle hard, echoing a loud pitch throughout the whole flat field. In a dash, all 17 men ran side-by-side in suicidal-like runs toward their first obstacle.

The first obstacle was called 'The Weaver.' The weaver looks like the frames of a house roof with a series of logs evenly spaced apart from another, giving enough space in between each log for a body to slip through. They lead all the way up top a point and then back down through another set of logs. The first recruits to make it there, First Lieutenant Falcon, dove head first through the first log and started to move under and over every other log. In other words, he was 'weaving' through them. Falcon was soon followed by other enlisted men following his lead. Falcon made it to the top and sat on the top log, making sure his recruits were okay. This was a good sign of leadership.

Ryan himself was having a great time. His body was not as muscular as the others, but he does have a ton more stamina than most of the recruits. He easily slithered his way through the logs with ease. Once he made it to the top with Falcon, Ryan almost lost his grip, but his wrist was snatched by, none other than, Sergeant Robert Davis, his buddy. Davis pulled Ryan back up on the log. Falcon, and the other instructors saw that as a sign of team loyalty. Ryan slithered through the logs and stayed the at the end to help the other recruits off. Finally, all 17 recruits were off of the weaver and now they moved on to the next obstacle witch will take a lot of upper-body strength.

The next obstacle was the Confidence Climb, which looked like a ladder to a baby's point of view. There were two steel beams sticking high up in the air with a series of logs leading straight up. They did not have to weave through them, but they had to get to the top, over the top log, and down the other end.

Again, showing leadership, the officers ran to the obstacle and offered to help the enlisted up first. The officers cupped their hands as the enlisted stepped in them and started their climb all the way up. In some places, the log was too high to reach with their regular arm lengths, so fellow recruits helped each other up developing team work.

Ryan was the first to reach the top. To display his loyalty, he sat on the top with the log between his legs. He looked down and noticed he was about 50 feet off the ground. Soon afterward, he started helping his fellow recruits slide over the log and onto the other side. One by one, with the officers following, they all made it down the tall ladder and made the small jump back on ground, jumping in a pile of sawdust.

The 17 continued running toward their next obstacle which was the arm walk. It was like a moving dip. There were two horizontal bars about shoulder-width apart extending to at leased 20 feet and suspended at leased 10 feet in the air. The recruits lined up one by one leading to the arm walk polls. They gripped the bars and used their arms to walk through the long path, adding extra pressure on their biceps, shoulders, and pecs. As they moved, they used their knees for supports, flexing one knee while moving with the opposite arm. One by one, as they made it to the end of the bars, they performed one stationary dip to show they were not the leased bit tired.

The recruits stayed at the end of the bars until the final recruit finished. When all 17 were reunited at the end of the arm walk obstacle, they ran for their next one, which was the swing and jump. Ryan, being one of the fastest ones there, was able to reach the obstacle first. There were two ropes suspended above a tall jog and the recruits had to swing across them over the pit of mud. Fortunately, they get two chances. Ryan dove forward, grabbed on one of the ropes, and his momentum swung him on the other side in one attempt. He stayed behind on the other side and tossed the rope back to them, waiting for his team.

Soon afterward, the recruits started running and winging off the ropes on the other side, and they tossed the ropes back for the other running recruits. This also built reflexes and reactions to make their swing and hand it off to a recruit before they accidentally ended up running in the mud. Fortunately, no one fell in the mud pit. The run continued on to the next obstacle.

The next obstacle was the horizontal ladder. It looks similar to the monkey bars in the playground, only the bars are a lot further apart, thicker in diameter, and the whole thing was suspended ten feet in the air. Again, like the last obstacle, all the recruits lined up behind it, jumped on the log step, jumped onto the first bar, and used their arms to run through it. Just like monkeys, they swung from bar to bar in smooth motions, as opposed to jerky starts and stops. All on a line, the twelve enlisted and five officers swung their way down the long path in single file toward the end. One by one, they all dropped off at the end, landing in a patch of sawdust. They all gathered around the end waiting fro the last recruit to drop off. As soon as he did, the 17 made their mad dash runs toward the last obstacle.

The last obstacle is simply dubbed 'The Tough One.' With one simple glance at this obstacle, it should be called 'The Impossible One' but it is really not impossible. The whole obstacle starts off with a low log used to reach a rope. The rope leads to a suspended walk-able platform with logs, each evenly spaced apart. The platform of logs lead up to a tall ladder similar to the ladder they encountered earlier but smaller. At the top of this ladder is a rope suspended in the air leading down the 50 feet to the bottom.

The recruits slowed down as Lieutenant Falcon jumped up to demonstrate to his team that the obstacle is not hard. Falcon climbed up the rope leading to the top and on the log platform. He sat on one of the logs and gestured the team to follow suit. One at a time, the recruits climbed up the ropes leading the large platform. Ryan had a little trouble and would have fallen off it was not for Davis' catch. Davis pushed Ryan up onto the log platform, in return he helped pull Davis up with him.

Soon enough, all 17 recruits were at the top and ready to finish. On their own, they ran along the logs toward the ladder quickly. Each one cupped their hands to help each other up the tall ladder, leading to the pillar with the suspended rope. First one up the top of the ladder was Ryan. He was sure he kept one hand and one foot on the ladder as he climbed up. Once Ryan reached the second long from the top, he sat on it and held on the ladder uprights with both arms. He used his boot to grab the rope and bring it closer to him. He grabbed with rope with his hands, then with his boots, and slowly climbed his way down with one hand and boot under the other. Sliding was prohibited this time. As Ryan was descending, he looked up and saw his fellow recruits on the rope above him descending.

Ryan dropped down in the pile of sawdust bellow. He stepped away and helped any recruits trying to get off. Soon enough, the last one off was Lieutenant Falcon who displayed outstanding leadership throughout the course. Falcon was the first one on the first obstacle, the weaver, and was the last one off the last obstacle, the tough one.

As soon as all the recruits were reunited at the end, Colonel Moss blew his whistle as he approached the high-fiving recruits.

"Okay, everyone, take a knee," Moss told them. The recruits gathered around Moss on one knee. "Outstanding work, you displayed good teamwork and you worked together well. Officers, especially Lieutenant Falcon, I'm proud of you guys for displaying good leadership to get your team through. I saw a few mishaps where you worked alone, but you overall did an outstanding job. Hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-ah!" the recruits shouted in glee.

**8 **

_PRESENT DAY _

That night, back at the Underground Base, Ryan explained to the five furries of his plan. The only problem is it will have to wait a few days before it can actually be taken into effect.

"Good idea, Ryan," Sonia said with glee as she sat on the couch next to the tall red-headed man in the American digital-pattern camouflage pants.

"Dude, you honestly think that is going to work?" Manic asked. All five furries are wearing their current trademark clothes.

"It has to," Ryan said. "Maybe the execution of the plan might go awry, but the plan itself is perfect. We just got to hope that Robotnik will feel like he has to try and get someone else."

"But, Ryan, if this doesn't work, he will have you and some other civilian from Earth," Cyrus explained.

"Cyrus, I'm no civilian," Ryan replied with a chuckle. When Ryan joined the United States Army, he signed away of his legal American civilian-hood. He was still American, but at the same time, a government weapon.

"Right, right," Cyrus nodded, standing corrected.

"So, tomorrow night, let's be off for Sanctuary," Ryan said to them. "Night because I don't want Robotnik's goons to follow."

Sanctuary was a place in the great forest of Mobius where most of the freedom fighters hang out. Only a small few are allowed to know of their location on any map. They kept it as a place to keep their children safe. Luckily for Ryan, the hedgehogs knew of Sanctuary's location. When Ryan first saw Sanctuary on an episode of the show, he noticed it looked very similar to Knothole village from the 1993 Sonic show simply titled 'Sonic the Hedgehogs' but dubbed by fans as 'SatAM.'

The six went off to their bedrooms for a good night sleep. Ryan kicked off his boots, exposing his dark green wool socks, and laid down in the guest bed, the same guest bed he slept on in his first night on Mobius. He felt to cushions and mattress and easily remembered being captured and escaping from Robotnik fortress. He felt homesick, but at the same time enjoying his stay. He has been away from home for so long; it was almost as if he forgot what it felt like to be back in Massachusetts. The only downside of his home state was that it was the strictest state in the country when it comes to gun laws, and Ryan is a gun-fanatic. It did not matter, he wished to be back home and soon.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	10. Sanctuary and Collective II

**CHAPTER 10**

**Sanctuary and Collective II**

**1**

It was almost midnight. Cyrus' laboratory was shutting down their lights for bed. Cyrus and Trevor have already been in deep sleep while the hedgehog triplets were putting away the black gear they had on. All three now bore two-piece cotton pajamas as they approached the guest bedroom where they expected Ryan was already sleeping. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic entered in the guest bedroom where they immediately noticed that the guest bed, where Ryan usually sleeps in, was empty. They found the covers undisturbed, meaning Ryan never actually got in bed.

"Ryan?" Sonic called.

"In here," Ryan called from a room down the hall. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic entered the room where Ryan called from and saw Ryan on the computer. He seems attached to what he is looking at. The three stood behind him to see what was on the screen.

"What are you looking at?" Manic asked.

"I hacked into Robotnik's main computer. Sleet was right, it appears that he has taken me to Mobius through the Dimensional Matter Displacer," Ryan said.

"What exactly is this Dimensional Matter Displacer?" Sonic asked.

"It says it's like a portal that opens up between worlds. In this case, Mobius and Earth," Ryan said.

"Can you open it?" Sonia asked. Ryan replied by shaking his head sadly.

"Not from this computer. The firewall is too strong. I have to open it from the main computer or from a computer generator to the main computer," Ryan said. "But you heard what Sleet said, the DMD has to recharge fully before it can be used again. That is within the next few days."

"Does this mean that you could get home?" Sonic asked.

"I guess so but I don't think anytime soon," Ryan said.

"Well, we can talk about this another time, shall we go to bed?" Sonia asked. All of a sudden, Ryan went wide-eyed from what he saw. "Ryan? You okay?"

"You know what, I'm not the only one who went through that portal," Ryan said.

"What?" Manic asked.

"Look at this. There's another cartoon of yours, Sonic. It's called 'Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog' and it says some woman, about a year ago, was sent into that cartoon through the Dimensional Matter Displacer," Ryan explained.

"How many cartoons do I have?" Sonic asked.

"Five. The first one is 'Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog'. The second is simply called 'Sonic the Hedgehog' but the fans call it SatAM. Your third cartoon, this one, is called 'Sonic Underground'. You also have a Japanese Anime of two episodes called 'Sonic Anime', which is basically the movie. Finally, you have a recently new show called 'Sonic X' which is another Japanese cartoon," Ryan said.

"Wow, I must be famous," Sonic said happily about himself.

"You are. You also have over 200 comic issues from the company of Archie comics and another 200 in the Fleetway Comics Company. Plus, you have a whole lot of games from 2D to 3D," Ryan explained.

"What about us?" Manic asked while pointing at his sister.

"Sorry. You two are only in 'Sonic Underground' and only one issue of the Archie comics," Ryan said. With that, Manic and Sonia slumped, looking down.

"Ah, come on," Ryan said getting up. He stood in between them and put his arms around their shoulders. "Sonic, could you leave us?"

"Okay," Sonic said as he sped out the room leaving Ryan with Sonia and Manic.

"Chin up, you two. The companies haven't thought of giving Sonic a brother and sister until this show was aired. In fact, you two are the favorite characters of the show. Sure, there are some fans that like other character better and some fans that despise you two. But majority, Sonic Underground fans like you two a lot more than Sonic," Ryan said.

"Really?" Sonia asked.

"That's right. I'm one of them. Although I hate seeing weak furries. I hate seeing my favorite characters get kidnapped or captured and all. You two have been captured by Robotnik many times," Ryan said.

"Tell me about it," Manic said sarcastically.

"I like seeing my favorite characters being the heroes and beating up the bad guys. You know, maybe someday, you two will save Sonic's life someday!" Ryan said happily.

"Wow, I hope soon," Sonia said.

"That's right. You two are my favorite characters and I'll do anything to see you two be rough and tough just life Sonic," Ryan said.

"Thanks!" Manic said happily. This was followed by a yawn. "Until then, I suggest we get some sleep."

Ryan nodded in agreement. He reached over and flipped the computer off and followed Sonia and Manic out to the guest bedroom.

**2**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

It was dusk, but it felt like night in the middle of the woods. It was silent and dark, except for several individuals creeping through the place. All 17 recruits slowly crept through the dark woods. Only this time, none of them are wearing their gear. They all bore their untapped battle dress uniforms, boonie hats, and carried no weapons. Instead, they are using their hands as weapons. For the right handed recruits, like Ryan, they held their palms flat and vertical pointing forward close to their chest. Their left palms, flat, closed, and vertical, were held forward parallel with their right palms. For the left handed recruits, it was the exact opposite.

The recruits were not alone. Accompanying them are the instructors. Most of them are walking slowly behind them, watching their movements, the way they step, what they are looking out for, and the formation they are in. Two of the instructors are actually part of the patrol with the recruits. They are participating in the training as well, making 19 soldiers on the training patrol, being watched by the instructor staff.

"Contact right!" one of the instructors shouted at the top of his lungs.

Immediately, all 19 soldiers dropped to the ground and "aimed" their imaginary rifles to the right of them. Simultaneously, and scattered, various "pop pop pop pop" sounds emitted out of the recruits mouths.

"Stand by to peel," Lieutenant Falcon shouted loudly, although there was no real-life gunfire in the quiet woods. A peel is a defensive tactic which was a move and retreat coordinated movement. Its purpose was to escape from enemy hostiles and give the temporary appearance of superior strength. In a way, it is like the job of the mid-ranking wolves of a pack; their job is to howl in yaps to predators to make it sound like the wolf pack is 30 or 40 or even 50 strong when they are really less than 10 maybe.

"Peel one! Peel one!" a recruit shouted as he stood up, tapped another recruit's shoulder, and ran back. The recruit that got his shoulder tapped snapped up, tapped another recruit's shoulder, and ran back.

This move-and-shoot method continued on for quite a while. After about ten minutes of pretending to do a center peel, the recruits were getting exhausted. However, their adrenalin kept them moving faster and harder. The recruits peeled all the way to a dead river bank. Falcon had an idea.

"Peel left! Cover fire on the top of the bank!" Falcon shouted. The recruits did so, pretending to shoot as if they were kids at play, only they were taking this seriously. The recruits rejoined Falcon on the river bank and started peeling left. One by one, they all got up, tapped the closest recruit's shoulder, and ran off only to stop and pretend to shoot again.

This chain of action went on all night long. Although there was no sign of the recruits stopping, the instructor staff following and observing them were impress with their communication skills, their teamwork efforts, and Falcon's outstanding leadership.

Ryan personally was having the time of his life practicing this peel tactic. He felt like a little kid with his friends playing in the backyard. When he was young, he lived next door, on both sides, with other kids his age. They lived where their backyard was huge and it lead to woods. They used to play around, jump on each other, run like mad, and do all sorts of stressful stuff when they were kids, especially in the summer when it was dusk. To Ryan, those were the best days of his life when his age was still a single-digit. Practicing this center peel tactic brought back those memories.

**3**

_PRESENT DAY_

In the top main office of the main Robotropolis building, Sleet and Dingo stood before Robotnik sitting in his rotating mechanical chair. Sleet just finished explaining how Ryan escaped again. In addition, he also gave him the message Ryan told Sleet to give. Sleet explained that Ryan was going off to Sanctuary, and Robotnik has no idea where it is. This further angered Robotnik.

"I cannot let that Green Beret go off to Sanctuary," Robotnik growled.

"Sir, if I may make a suggestion, sir," Sleet said in a nervous tone.

"Very well," Robotnik replied with a sigh.

"What that guy did to me was just recent, and it's night out, where our SWAT Bots patrols are the heaviest," Sleet explained. "Even for a Green Beret, he wouldn't risk exposing himself in fear of getting caught. Even if he believed he wasn't, he knew he couldn't risk us following him." Robotnik understood where Sleet was coming from. Of course they could not expect Ryan to leave on that one second, in the middle of the night, where the patrols are the heaviest. The hedgehogs would have to move early in the morning, that was when patrols were light, and they would most likely take an alternative route, not straight.

"I understand, Sleet," Robotnik replied, finally grinning. "But, at the same time, we have no idea where he is. We knew he was at the home of those hedgehogs until we found out about it. I sent my reconnaissance robots at the base and there has been no living activity there in a while."

**4**

Little did Robotnik know was that he was being taped. Not too far away in an adjacent building, Queen Aleena stood crouched in a small abandoned room. The room looked like a cross between a haunted house and a ruble-wrecked building. The place is full of dust and cobwebs and dust, and most of the plastered walls are breaking away revealing the wooden frame underneath.

Besides some spiders and bogs, the only living being inside the building is Aleena herself. She bore a black robe with a shawl, almost mistaken to be a Muslim woman. Standing next to her is a tripod with an advanced digital camera mounted on it. Connected to the camera are a set of laptops and computer brains. Each screen displayed something different, such as a thermal image of Robotnik and Sleet talking not too far away, and a wave sound recorder. A laser microphone is attached to the camera. The laser is motion sensitive, it records vibrations on glass and walls emitted from the subjects voices and translates it into speech.

Aleena stood crouching still as the conversation continued. She listened to what the laser microphone was recording clearly, although most of it was static and the voiced did sound a bit distort. Overall, the voices came in clear and the video did pick up the thermal images of Robotnik and Sleet talking.

"Do you think it is at all possible that Ryan is still within Robotropolis?" Sleet asked.

"He wouldn't take the chance leaving just yet, exposing the hedgehogs," Robotnik replied, sounding static-like over the laser microphone recording program. "And we know he can't be at the hedgehog's home."

"That does limit our options," Sleet said.

Sleet thought back to the conversation he had with Ryan earlier. He remembered they did head northwest down a street, (the same street where Ryan met the hedgehogs) and yet the home of the hedgehogs was south of that position. He knew he would not be at the home of Bartlby because he saw how Ryan treated him both at the party and on the streets. Suddenly, Sleet remembered something. He remembered handing Ryan's gear bag to a robot. It was a lion robot. It was Cyrus' father, that was it, Sleet knew about the laboratory that Cyrus has on the other end of Robotropolis, just northwest of the downtown street.

"Robotnik, I think I know where that man is," Sleet said with a tone of glee. In response the two ran the short distance to the computers with a GLPS system on it. After activating it, a satellite photo of Robotropolis appeared. Sleet pointed his gloved finger on a large building complex which happens to be Cyrus' lab. "They were heading in this direction, I'm sure of it."

"How sure?" Robotnik asked.

"It's the only possible place he would be," Sleet said. "Far away from us, tough exteriors, and the streets are set up to escape on a moment's notice." Robotnik nodded. Everything Sleet said was true.

"What place is that again?" Robotnik asked.

"That's the lab of that guy you bribed, Cyrus," Sleet told him. Robotnik remembered Cyrus. He captured his father and threatened to robotosize him if he would not serve as a spy for the hedgehogs. On the way to Sanctuary, Cyrus destroyed the spy bug on him after he was told that Sanctuary was where the children are kept safely. Of course, this resulted in Robotnik robotosizing his father.

"Alright, let's assume you're right," Robotnik said. "I want SWAT Bot patrols on all possible escape routes on the roads, send in a stealth bot to provide recon, and a SWAT Bot element inside and eight more elements surrounding a four-corner perimeter around the building. Get to it now, daylight is wasting."

"Yes, sir, I'll go out if the field with them," Sleet replied with a salute. He spun on his heel and exited the war room.

Robotnik sighed as he leaned on the control board. There was one other option left if this fails. "If Ryan escapes and makes it to Sanctuary, I'll have to wait two and half days until the Dimensional Matter Displacer is fully charged again. This time, I'll grab myself a human with no military record."

That was enough information Aleena needed. She reached in her pocket and pulled out what looks like a palm PDA. She connected USB cables from the laptops to the PDA and used her thumb to press a connection button. After a short pause, her PDA connected to the laptops. She used the little pen on the pad and started writing in a message:

_Robotnik enroute to your location, take non-street exits, get to Sanctuary fast, keep Ryan alive, enclosed are video and audio files of Robotnik's plan_

_–Aleena_

Aleena finished by turning to her laptops and saving the video file of Robotnik and Sleet's conversation, syncing it with the laser microphone audio file. She then moved the video file as an attachment to her message. Once the file was loaded, she sent an address to Cyrus' laboratory via his beeper. Finally, she finished by tapping the tip of her PDA pen on the button labeled 'Send' and a loading bar appeared. Quickly, the bar reached 100 and it displayed that the message was sent.

**5**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Bangalore's date back all the way to World War II. On the morning of June 6, 1944, American unit raided the Normandy beach of Omaha. One of the units were the 5th Rangers. While heavy machine-gun fire was raining down on the Americans, so the Rangers had to get in low near the bunkers and plant Bangalore bombs, which were oversized long pipe bombs that takes a while team to construct and detonate.

Today, tradition still lives but technology has advanced. Bangalore's can now be made to detonate under water, which is what SEAL Teams use today. However, Ryan was not training to be a SEAL, he was training to be United States Army Special Forces, though in the near future he would operate along side SEALs.

Ryan, along with 19 of the recruits, were all helping on assembling a Bangalore bomb. They filled thick plastic plumbing pipes with gunpowder and sealing them with paper coverings. Falcon was showing excellent leadership when telling the recruits what to do, even the two instructor staff, playing as the Operations and Intelligence Sergeants, were impressed as well, and they did exactly as they were told from Lieutenant Falcon.

Davis and Ryan, as well as everyone else, were lying prone on their fronts as they quickly assembled the Bangalore mine.

"Davis, set the fuse on the front," Falcon ordered. "Perreault, hold it for him."

"Yes, sir," the two recruits said simultaneously. They rolled the short distance to the end of one of the pipes. While everyone else were tying the pipes together with wood from the trees, Ryan and his buddy Davis plugged up the end by topping it with gunpowder. Ryan used his palms to cover the end so as to not let any gunpowder lead out. David plugged up the end with the paper stopper. Once it was glued in place, Davis stuck the fuse in while Ryan grabbed the two rocks, ready for detonation.

"Sound off, tell me when you're done," Falcon announced. One by one, the recruits shouted their named loud and clear.

"Wire."

"Carpenter."

"Brick."

"Loren."

"Beta."

"Grimes."

"Nathanson."

"Perreault."

"Davis."

"Matthews."

"Roselyn."

"Nichols."

"Tanor."

"Adams."

"Rush."

"Samsung."

"Stevens."

"Fox."

Stevens and Fox were the two Master Sergeants given to them by the instructor staff to serve an Operations Sergeant, Stevens, and an Intelligence Sergeant, Fox.

"Stand by to ignite!" Falcon announced. Immediately, one by one, several of the recruits, one of which was Ryan, hit two rocks together and ignited a nearby leaf. They used the leaves to light the tip of the fuses.

"Fuses burned!" some of the recruits shouted in scattered tones.

"Fire in the hole!" Falcon shouted. Just then, the 19 soldiers tossed the Bangalore's over the side of the ridge they were on and dropped right near a fake cave building. They all ducked their heads with their hands behind them, and there was a loud explosion!

The explosion, since the recruits were shielded from the blast but still close to it, caused the recruit's ears to ring wildly. There was next to no noise going into their ears. They seemed to have been shell shocked by the blast of the bombs they just made.

However, nearly deaf or not, the recruits shown no sign of weakness. They all snapped up to their feet, just as dirt and debris rained all over them, and ran toward the source of the blast holding their palms in the same manor as their imaginary rifles. All 19 soldiers stormed in the small cave as if it were really deep.

Within a few minutes, they all got their hearing back just in time to hear the staff outside calling them out. The 17 recruits and two veterans exited the cave and met the staff. Colonel Moss stood in front of them with his arm across his chest with a stern look on his face. Suddenly, he started to smile and began to clap.

"Outstanding work, guys!" Moss announced to them. "Beautiful."

The recruits gave each other high-fives, pats on the backs, and even hugs. Even the two veterans joined in on the little celebration.

**6**

_PRESENT DAY_

Cyrus was awoken up almost rudely. He was lying in bed when he heard a beeping sound go off. It was not his alarm clock, but his beeper. Cyrus sighed to himself, thinking who would call him in the middle of the night. That thought shocked him a bit; no one would call in the middle of the night unless it was important. Cyrus snatched his beeper and looked at the number on it:

'138-1002 EMERGENCY'

Cyrus immediately knew that number. It was used as a spy code to those who are watching over Robotnik. Of course, Cyrus had many spies; it could be either one of them. Nevertheless, it was am emergency call. He dashed out of bed and ran to his computer. Luckily for him, he always puts his computer on stand-by mode rather than shutting it down. He jiggled the computer mouse and the computer activated, displaying a username and password dialogue box. Cyrus typed in his name as the user name and entered in his password, finishing off by tapping 'Enter' with his pinky.

The desktop screen appeared with a photograph of himself with Sonic, Sonia, and Manic together goofing around. The shadow on the ground in front of the photograph clearly shows that Trevor was the one who took the picture. Cyrus only kept a few icons on his desktop to enjoy that picture. He quickly double clicked on his beeper messenger icon which immediately displayed a dialogue box asking for the receiver number. He typed in '1381002' in the box and hit the enter key with his pinky again.

The message displayed shocked Cyrus. It clearly said what Aleena typed, that SWAT Bots are coming to the lab to capture Ryan. He noticed there was a video attachment, so he downloaded. As soon as the download was complete, the video started playing. It was a thermal image of Robotnik and Sleet having a conversation in the static-sounding voices.

"Robotnik, I think I know where that man is," Sleet said over the speakers. The two thermal figures ran to the computers. "They were heading in this direction, I'm sure of it."

"How sure?" Robotnik asked.

"It's the only possible place he would be. Far away from us, tough exteriors, and the streets are set up to escape on a moment's notice."

"What place is that again?"

"That's the lab of that guy you bribed, Cyrus," Sleet told him.

"Alright, let's assume you're right, I want SWAT Bot patrols on all possible escape routes on the roads, send in a stealth bot to provide recon, and a SWAT Bot element inside and eight more elements surrounding a four-corner perimeter around the building. Get to it now, daylight is wasting."

"Yes, sir, I'll go out if the field with them," Sleet said as he left.

"If Ryan escapes and makes it to Sanctuary, I'll have to wait two and half days until the Dimensional Matter Displacer is fully charged again. This time, I'll grab myself a human with no military record," Robotnik said over the speakers. The video ended right there.

Cyrus knew they were coming. In some ways, he felt amazed that Robotnik was going to activate the Dimensional Matter Displacer again, which is what Ryan predicted. Quickly, Cyrus used the mouse to click on the 'Print' button. Aleena's message printed out from the quick LaserJet printer. Before the sheet of paper was fully out, Cyrus snatched it and ran out. For someone who was just fast asleep a minute ago, Cyrus was now fully wide awake.

**7**

"Wake up, everyone, wake up!" Cyrus called out while running down the hallway, banging on the bedroom doors. All the doors, one at a time, opened up.

"Cyrus, what is it? It's two in the morning," Sonia said wiping the mucus out of her eyes.

"I got a message from Queen Aleena!" Cyrus shouted. That immediately woke everyone up.

"Mother?" Sonia asked in a daze.

"What did mom say?" Sonic asked. Cyrus handed the sheet of paper to Sonic. Sonic read the note and was shocked at what he read.

"Robotnik knows we are housing Ryan, we got to get him to Sanctuary, now," Cyrus announced. Immediately, the hedgehogs and Ryan ran to their bedrooms.

This was a familiar feeling to Ryan. Weeks ago, he was packing his stuff in his one-strap bag to get out of his own home when it was being raided by SWAT Bots. Now, it was happening again. Ryan stood on his knees as he packed his items back in his bag. He quickly swung it over his shoulder and grabbed his USP gun on the side table. Ryan slowly pulled back on the slide and saw a bullet loaded in the chamber. He closed the slide and ejected the magazine. There were still at leased a few bullets left in his magazine, along with one whole one to spare. He ran out of the bedroom where he met up with Cyrus. Cyrus motioned him to follow him to his bedroom.

Ryan followed Cyrus in his bedroom to see what he wanted to show him. He did not even speak, he just had his computer running and he began playing the video he got from Aleena:

"Robotnik, I think I know where that man is. They were heading in this direction, I'm sure of it."

"How sure?"

"It's the only possible place he would be. Far away from us, tough exteriors, and the streets are set up to escape on a moment's notice."

"What place is that again?"

"That's the lab of that guy you bribed, Cyrus."

"Alright, let's assume you're right. I want SWAT Bot patrols on all possible escape routes on the roads, send in a stealth bot to provide recon, and a SWAT Bot element inside and eight more elements surrounding a four-corner perimeter around the building. Get to it now, daylight is wasting."

"Yes, sir, I'll go out if the field with them," Sleet left again.

"If Ryan escapes and makes it to Sanctuary, I'll have to wait two and half days until the Dimensional Matter Displacer is fully charged again. This time, I'll grab myself a human with no military record."

The video ended. Ryan was thinking through his Special Forces brain.

"It's working," Ryan said happily. "We'll have to take a path away from the roads. We'll then have to zigzag toward our way to Sanctuary."

"Zigzag? Why?" Cyrus asked.

"If Robotnik does successfully follow us, his reconnaissance robots would be confused and lose direction," Ryan explained. "It was back in 1989 during Operation Just Cause in Panama. Navy SEALs from SEAL Team FOUR had to plant explosives on Noriega's escape boat. They approached the boat in zigzags to avoid being spotted by the Panamanian forces."

After Ryan was done, Cyrus quickly grabbed a box off the table. This box looks like some kind of a computer external hard drive, which is what it was. Cyrus plugged the USB cables in the computer just as Ryan looked at him confused.

"Cyrus, what are you doing?" Ryan asked. "We need to get out of here before the robots show up."

"This computer contains all of my data, including classified," Cyrus explained. "I can't let it fall into Robotnik's hands." Cyrus quickly uploaded all of his computer's data on the hard drive. "Under my bed's mattress, there is a laptop bag. Grab it for me."

Ryan did so without hesitation. He lifted the mattress up slightly and reached his hand inside. He felt his way until his hand gripped on what felt like a strap. In one swift motion, Ryan swiped the laptop bag from under the mattress. It was nothing different that laptop bags on Earth. It was heavy, meaning there was a laptop in it.

"Got it," Ryan told him. The screen then suddenly displayed that all the hard drive's data has been moved to the external hard drive. Cyrus unplugged it out and shut off his computer. He did not wait for the computer to be fully shut down; he jumped out of his chair. "Wait, what about the data on the computer?"

"I didn't copy the files, I just moved them," Cyrus explained. "All the data on my computer is empty. It's all here on this hard drive. Let's go."

Ryan handed Cyrus the laptop bag, which he put around his shoulder. The two ran out of the bedroom.

**8**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

The sun was blazing hot, but none of the recruits shown any signs of weakness mainly due to being very used to harsh conditions that the instructors put them through. Within the compound of Fort Bragg lay a desert-looking area with nearly dead trees and dirt all around. The sun beat down on the recruits and instructors on this hot day.

"Who wants to go first," Moss announced to the kneeling recruits. The recruits, this time, were wearing black battle dress uniforms and Kevlar gear pockets. They do not look like soldiers; they look like police SWAT officers. Some of them, not Ryan, bore balaclavas, which are hoods covering the whole head with one large horizontal oval just to expose the eyes and nose.

"I'll go first, sir," Ryan said. Unlike last times, the recruits actually held onto weapons. In this case, they all had MP5A3 submachine guns with a tactical light for a grip and the retractable butt extended all the way.

Ryan got up and followed Moss to the first training marker. In this course, he has to run to certain markers and fire his weapon at targets. In addition, he would have to use his SOCOM sidearm pistol when his gun is empty or when he is told to. Moss led Ryan to the first marker right in front of a series of metal targets shaped like humans.

"Okay, ten military push ups and begin," Moss told Ryan. Ryan dropped down and did ten push ups all the way down and all the way up. On his tenth, he kicked his legs to his hands and stood up. "Okay, begin whenever you're ready."

Ryan raised his MP5 right up to the first targets. He flipped the selector switch from 'Safe' to 'Semi-Auto.' Ryan burst one round at a time on each of the designated targets.

"Good, move," Moss told him.

Ryan started strafing to the left, keeping his gun and face forward. He burst one round at a time on the individual targets. Once all the required targets were down, he moved on to the next station. He ran at near-suicidal speed, knowing he was being timed, to the next marker. Ryan burst several other rounds at the designated targets.

"Next marker, sidearm!" Moss announced.

Ryan swung his MP5 over his shoulder and kept his hand on his sidearm as he ran quickly to the next marker further back. At the marker, Ryan whipped out his pistol and fired several rounds at the targets.

"Reload," Moss ordered.

Ryan dropped to one knee and pressed his thumb on the magazine-release button. The magazine dropped with a bullet still in the chamber. He reached for another pistol magazine and slid it in the handle. Since there was already a bullet in the barrel, there was no need to pull on the slide and cock it. Ryan burst several more rounds at the targets.

"Next marker, rifle on full auto!" Moss announced.

Ryan holstered his sidearm and ran at suicidal speed while readying his MP5. While running, he flipped the selector switch from 'Semi-Auto' to 'Full-Auto.' By the time he made it to the marker, he was out of breath. Still, Ryan kept going. He aimed his MP5 at the targets and burst several rounds at the targets. One by one, they dropped. As soon as his MP5 was empty, he dropped it to his chest and whipped out his sidearm quickly. He burst several rounds taking down the remaining targets.

"Last marker, reload!" Moss announced.

Ryan holstered his sidearm and pulled out his MP5. He ran at mad speed to the last marker further away on the other end. As he ran, he pulled on the MP5's bolt and yanked out the magazine, dropping it. Once he reached the marker, he has already slid in another magazine and used his palm to slap the bolt down, putting a bullet in the barrel. Ryan aimed down the iron sights of his submachine gun and shot at full automatic on the remaining targets. The last metal target dropped with Ryan still with half a magazine.

"Okay, Perreault, take a breath," Moss said to him. Ryan bent over a bit with his hands on his knees, panting, out of breath. "Okay, Perreault, look at me."

Ryan got back up and looked up at Colonel Moss. However, he was shocked to see a stern look on his face. Ryan made the time really well and he did hit all the targets with the fewest misses and least number of rounds. Why was Moss staring angrily at him?

"Perreault, take a look behind you," Moss told him. Ryan slowly looked behind him in confusion. However, the second Ryan looked at the field, he understood why Moss was upset.

The desert field had dirt and dust kicked in the air. Ryan ran so fast, his hard boots pounding the desert floor and fast-paced winds caused a lot of dirt airborne, leaving a thick trail behind him, marking his path.

"Okay, looks at me," Moss told him. Ryan turned his attention back to the tall Moss. "Tell me what the problem was, Perreault."

"I ran so fast that I kicked up dirt, sir," Ryan replied.

"Why is that a bad thing?"

"The enemy would see the airborne dirt, thus compromising my position, sir."

"What was the phrase we told you about close quarters battle?"

"Fast is slow, slow is quick, sir," Ryan said back. It was true. In combat, move slowly due to better control. It was like when Ryan was being taught by his grandfather how to golf. He had to swing the golf club in one smooth slow motion, thus having better control of the ball. In the world of combat, moving slow and smooth will keep a soldier alive, not breath-taking speed.

"So, give me a good reason why you ran so fast," Moss told him. Ryan thought about it and had a good answer in reply.

"Because, since this was CQB training, I didn't think it would matter if I kicked up dust, because there is no dirt or dust indoors, and there the enemy wouldn't be able to see it from behind doors even if I did, sir," Ryan explained. Unfortunately, Moss was unimpressed.

"Perreault, whether it be CQB or desert warfare, the rules never change, understand?" Moss said to Ryan calmly. Ryan nodded his head in disappointment.

"Yes, sir," Ryan replied back.

"Overall, your marksmanship is outstanding and you conserved your ammo, just work on controlling yourself. This is not a race, Perreault," Moss told Ryan.

"Yes, sir," Ryan said.

"Okay, take a knee with your recruits," Moss told him.

"Yes, sir," Ryan said. He rejoined with his fellow recruits. The nearby ones all gave Ryan a pat on the back. This was a sign telling him that the recruits thought he did a good job. That was enough to bring a smile back on Ryan's face.

**9**

_PRESENT DAY_

The scorpion craft, driven by Sleet and Dingo, stopped at the entrance to the lab building. All five SWAT Bots ran out and toward the front door of the lab. They broke down the door making a bang. The SWAT Bots made entry.

Sleet and Dingo remained inside the craft waiting for the capture of the Ryan and the hedgehogs.

"They'll get them soon," Sleet said with confidence.

Noise emitted from the laboratory. There was the sound of clanging and metallic footsteps running through. However, there were no laser blast sounds, nor gunfire. Sleet checked on the surveillance monitors for updates. All he could see were SWAT Bots covering the four corners of the complex. None of the SWAT Bots shouted that they found contact with the hedgehogs or Ryan. Sleet was growing impatient.

"What is taking them so long?" Sleet asked furiously.

"Maybe they took a wrong turn," Dingo replied stupidly. In response to that, Sleet reached behind him and slapped Dingo behind the head like he always does. It has been a while since the SWAT Bots went inside. All of a sudden, one by one, the five bots come walking out. Even though they are robots, they do show a body emotion of disappointment.

"What's going on?" Sleet angrily yelled as he exited the scorpion vehicle.

"The place is empty," the lead SWAT bot told him in a robotic voice.

"Empty? What do you mean?" Sleet shouted back. Sleet did not wait for the SWAT bot to reply.

Sleet immediately ran past the SWAT bot and into the dark building. He whipped out his laser sidearm with his right hand and pulled out a flashlight with his left holding it in his fist downward like a dagger. He used his wrist to hold up his sidearm as he proceeded through the laboratory complex. Sleet ran through the main lab room full of tables and equipment, but no hedgehogs. He made his way through the hallways and checked each room, all of them were empty. All the rooms were clear; there was no sign of the hedgehogs or Ryan.

Sleet dropped to his knees, kicked back his head, and yelled loudly in anger. He saw signs that they were there minutes ago, but are now gone. The fact that everyone was gone was bad enough. The worst part was telling Robotnik.

**10**

The Sonic Underground, along with Cyrus, Trevor, and Ryan, were already miles away heading toward Sanctuary. Manic, driving, kept going in wide-zigzags but they really were not being tailed.

"Buckle your seatbelts, everyone," Manic announced like an airline pilot. "Next stop, Sanctuary."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	11. Ballad and Collective III

**CHAPTER 11**

**Ballad and Collective III**

**1**

The morning sun slowly rose over the horizon of a large forest. The Sonic Underground van slowly sped through zigzagging through the trees toward their destination. They finally arrived at the place known as Sanctuary. It looked like a cross between a futuristic city seen on shows like _The Jetsons_ and the tree city of elves from J.R.R. Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_. Sanctuary was almost as big as a city built onto a tree with large canopy domes covering over the small buildings inside. There was only one access to get in there and that was through a bridge due to the place being surrounded by a think and heavy flowing river to prevent enemies from attacking. There are also a series of boats along the boarders for an escape in case the bridge went out.

The van zipped along the bridge toward the front entrance of Sanctuary. Immediately entering in, Ryan looked out the window and spotted a huge mob of children furries playing around in the yards surrounded by a fence to prevent them from wandering in the road where the van drove through. Manic parked the van along the side of the road immediately following the doors opening. Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor stepped outside.

"Glad we made it," Cyrus said.

"You sure I'll be safe here?" Ryan asked from inside the van.

"Of course. Robotnik doesn't know where this place is," Sonic said. Finally, Ryan stood up and stepped out of the van. His khaki-colored boot stepped on the dirt of the forest floor and Ryan immediately noticed all of the children stopped playing just to stare at Ryan.

Ryan understood why the kids were staring at him. He was a three-dimensional human in this supposed two-dimensional world. At the same time, Ryan looked slightly scary. He was a tall five foot ten man with defined muscles. His dark-red puffy hair extended down to his shoulders. Plus, he was wearing a nearly-skin-tight black T-shirt tucked into battle dress uniform pants bearing the new American Army digital camouflage pattern. Clipped to his pants is a sidearm and, even though the kids cannot see it, behind Ryan clipped to his pants is a Heckler and Koch knife. Slung over his shoulder is his olive-drab bag hanging off of his right side. The bag was shifted a little to the back allowing him easy access to his gun. For the first time ever, since coming to this cartoon world, Ryan felt like an outcast.

"You okay Ryan?" Sonic asked from behind noticing Ryan's posture.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ryan lied. He quickly thought of something to say. "This place looks like Knothole."

"Huh?"

"Sorry, wrong show," Ryan quickly said, realizing he was in a different universe. It would not surprise him if Sonic standing next to him had no idea who Miles 'Tails' Prower was.

"We can give you anything you need, Ryan," Sonic said. Ryan smiled at that, and he knew exactly what he wanted.

"In case Robotnik does find me here, I need guns," Ryan said in the same tone that Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, said when asked what he needed in the film The Matrix. "Lots of guns."

"Sorry, we don't have any but we have a bunch of metal and a metal shop," Sonic said Ryan nodded. That was fair enough. Luckily, Ryan was a firearms expert, so he could make the guns out of scratch.

**2**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

"I want to see slow movement because we're going live-fire on this one," Colonel Moss told the 17 recruits, all wearing their black gear, while inside of the briefing room right next to a door leading to the Kill House. A Kill House is a training house used for Close Quarters Battle students. "Go slow! Go slow! Let's begin."

The recruits got up and readied their MP5's. This was not the first time they would be using live ammunition, but it was the first time they would use it in close quarters. It was simple, break into a room, stick along the walls when making entry, identify the targets if they are civilians or hostiles, see if hostiles even have a gun, and trigger squeeze. After many weeks of training, everything was becoming involuntary in movements with the recruits. The only thing that was not voluntary was the squeezing of the trigger, which was good.

Ryan, along with three other recruits, waited outside a door for their turn to shoot targets. They all lined up in single file along the wall with their hands on each others shoulders. None of them were expecting what was on the other side. They all kept their submachine guns pointed in the air to prevent them from sweeping the muzzle along one of their fellow recruits.

"Go!" the instructor shouted.

The recruit up front swung the door open and quickly stepped inside. He side-stepped to the left and Ryan, trailing behind him, side-stepped to the right. He brought the muzzle of his MP5 down and started shooting at the targets. There were posters of humans of all different kinds. Ryan was quickly able to identify the ones with the guns and burst live fire on them. In a matter of seconds, the shooting stopped. Ryan looked around and saw all four recruits standing side-by-side covering the room.

"Okay, come out," the instructor told them.

They all exited the room cautiously. One by one, they patted each other's shoulders and slowly stepped outside the room, back into the hallway, keeping the muzzles of their guns off of each other. The instructor stood in front of them.

"Roselyn, you swept Perreault's head badly," the instructor said to recruit Roselyn. Ryan looked over at the recruit and immediately noticed a look of sorrow on his face. Ryan was just glad Roselyn did not accidentally pull the trigger while doing it.

Back at home, when Ryan was young, he used to play video games of military combat all the time. He believes that CQB is his biggest strength when it comes to combat. However, his weakest strength would have to be urban combat, but he was unaware how well he will do in combat in an urban environment in the near future.

**3**

_PRESENT DAY_

In the metal shop of Sanctuary, the triplet hedgehogs gathered around Ryan as he pulled out a book from his back about firearm assembly.

"You two know how to carve and sculpt metal and how to work these tools?" Ryan asked the hedgehogs.

"Yeah, I made my motorcycle with this stuff," Sonia said.

"I made my board with this stuff," Manic said.

"Outstanding. Follow these instructions," Ryan said handing them the book.

Hours and hours later, the four have goggles on while they make and assemble all sorts of gun parts. Sonia made all the bullets, Sonic and Manic made all the gun parts, and Ryan assembled the parts together. Just as the sun was setting, they have accomplished in making several different types of guns such as the brand new XM8 Carbine. Ryan was a trifle disappointed when, back at home, the Department of Defense has discontinued the M8 program. It was a shame because the M8 was going to be five guns in one, an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, a light machine gun, a CQB rifle, and a grenade rifle.

"Let's test," Ryan said as he held firmly on his brand new XM8 Carbine. He never actually got the chance to fire it back at home due to its cancellation. While in the Special Forces, the most advanced weapon he used in combat was the Rx4 STORM which just entered in service a year ago. The mission in Kuwait where he had to get close to a summer home alone with the microphone, the one with the Stinger missiles, Ryan had an Rx4 over his shoulder at the time.

**4**

"What do you mean Ryan escaped?!" Robotnik yelled. In front of him are a nervous Sleet and Dingo.

"Well, you see, sir, he was there but he must have left before we got the chance to nab him," Sleet said with a nervous tone in his words. Robotnik however, immediately loosened his cool. He felt calm as he decided to use his contingency plan.

"It's okay. We can try again on someone else," Robotnik said. He turned his chair around and faced a computer.

Like last time, Robotnik has no idea he is being taped. Aleena sat in the adjacent building wearing a black hood and mask as the laser microphones and video tapes recorded Robotnik's every move.

After typing a few things on the computer, Robotnik turned around again.

"Okay, the program is at its end of charging," Robotnik told the two bounty hunters. "Within 24 hours, the Dimensional Matter Displacer will activate again."

"I thought you said it would take days," Dingo said in his dumb-sounding voice.

"Math error," Robotnik sneered, suggesting that it was most certainly not a math error. Robotnik must have lied to Sleet and Dingo so, in case Ryan would ever get information out of them like he did, they would accidentally end up giving Ryan false information. "But this is good. You see, once we open the portal, we can activate a blocking beam on it, preventing any human from going through it, like Ryan."

"So, he will be stuck here forever?" Sleet said, not really a question. He rubbed his hands together sinisterly. "Ooh, great plan, Doctor Robotnik. He may be Special Forces, but he cannot hide forever."

"Exactly," Robotnik sneered back.

"Well, can't you just place that blocking thing up right now in case he does come?" Dingo asked. Sleet was about to smack him behind the head again until he heard Robotnik humming, indicating that he was deep in thought.

Robotnik turned around on his chair and started typing on the computer again. He initiated the blocking program, but it said there was nothing to block from. Robotnik spun his chair around again.

"For the first time ever, you actually used your brain, Dingo," Robotnik said with a hint of glee. In Robotnik's mind, however, he was thinking 'or what was left of Dingo's brain.' "Unfortunately, the blocking program needs to have something to protect."

Dingo stood there confused.

"It's like a virus blocker for your computer," Robotnik said, "but you don't have a computer. In this case, the DMD is a computer, and the human shield is the virus blocker. Until the DMD is activated, the human shield won't work. So, we got to wait 24 hours before we activate the human shield, and then, Ryan will be trapped here forever."

Aleena recorded all of this on her laptops around her. Again, she had to send the message to Ryan and quickly. She whipped out her PDA and used the attachable pen to write in the following note:

_DMD about to activate by midnight tomorrow night. Robotnik installed human-blocker to prevent Ryan from going home. Must take out blocker before stealing the DMD programs. Hurry, time is limited._

_–Aleena_

Again, she saved the video files on her laptops and sent them as attachments on her PDA message. She finished by tapping the 'Send' button on her pad with the tip of her pen.

**5**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

It was just like the patrol the 17 recruits had many weeks ago. This time, they are now fully equipped with all of their gear, weapons, and live ammunition. Sergeant Stevens and Fox are joining them as well in part of the training exercise. Ryan was equipped with a standard Colt M4A1 rifle, as well as most of the other recruits. The ones with the larger bodies, such as Davis, have M249 Squad Automatic Weapons. The ones with the medium built bodies have a grenade launcher on to their M4's.

The 19 soldiers slowly crept through the woods, not making any sound. All of a sudden, a small explosion was burst. The instructors set up a metal barrel with a remote explosive in it to create chaos. Immediately, all 19 soldiers dropped and returned fire. Live bullets sprayed along the field like fireflies in the dark.

"Peel one, peel one!" Lieutenant Falcon shouted.

Again, they were going it, the squad was peeling. Ryan lay prone as he burst several round off in the distance with no enemies. Soon, his magazine clicked empty. He got up, tagged the shoulder of the closest recruit, and ran back to the peeling recruits. As soon as he reached them, he reloaded his M4 and started firing again, doing an outstanding job of not hitting his fellow recruits. In fact, all of the recruits were doing a good job of not shooting each other.

"Leapfrog! Leapfrog!" Falcon announced. "Red, move up first!"

Ryan was part of the red element. A leapfrog acts just like a peel except it is used as an offense. There are two types of leapfrogs, one of which is when one element stays behind and firing on the objective while the other element ran forward in a diagonal to prevent crossfire. As soon as the running element moved to a cover position, the shooting element would run forward while the other shot. The positions constantly changed. The other kind of leapfrog is just the opposite, which is what the recruits are doing. One element would run forward toward the objective in a diagonal. Once they were out of ammunition, they would drop, roll, and reload. At the same time, the other element would get up and run forward while firing at a diagonal. Again, once they were out, they would drop, roll, and reload, and the other element would get up and do it again. Shoot, drop, roll, reload. Get up, shoot, drop, roll, reload. Get up, shoot, drop, roll, reload. This leapfrog is used when there is not a lot of cover in the field.

Ryan, along with the red element which was half of the recruits, ran forward toward the explosion while firing at it in full automatic. Their rifles clicked so they dropped and rolled to their left once. While Ryan was reloading, he felt and heard the bullets from the other element wiz above him. He saw their boots zip by him as they fired their weapons.

Soon afterward, Ryan heard the second element's ammo run out. That was time for his element to get up and do it again. Ryan and his element ran forward as they fired on the fake objectives at full automatic. Ryan did not even notice he almost stepped on Falcon's hand. However, even if he did, it was a high doubt Falcon would have felt it due to the hung amounts of adrenalin. Their weapons' clicked, so they dropped, rolled, and reloaded.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!" Falcon shouted. Soon, everyone, who eventually leapfrogged into a straight horizontal line, stopped firing their weapons. Empty brass shells lay scattered all over the forest floor. Soon, the area was quiet. They all lay prone on the forest floor with their reloaded weapons pointing forward, as if they were waiting for something.

"Outstanding work, people," Moss told them over their radios. "Come on back."

The 19 soldiers set their weapons on safe and began the short trek back to base camp. Upon arriving, they were greeted by Colonel Moss and the rest of the instructor staff. Even though the sun just set and it was twilight, the recruits could easily see the pleased looks on the instructor's faces.

"Outstanding job," Moss told them. "You guys communicated, you moved as a team, had rear security in your movements, Falcon you call in for a fake air strike despite the stress you were under, overall great job."

The 19 soldiers were pleased with each other. At the same time, they were also tired. The spent the rest of the night either in the recreational room or, like Ryan, immediately went to bed.

**6**

_PRESENT DAY_

Ryan walked around the dirt path of Sanctuary as the sun was slowly setting, humming a tune. He heard a twig snap behind him and instantly snapped his back in the direction of the sound. Behind him was Sonic.

"Hey, Sonic," Ryan said with a chuckle.

"Hey, Ryan, what was that cool tune you were humming?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, it was the song played at my graduation," Ryan told him, dazing off in the sky remembering that day. "That song is almost 50 years old, yet it really describes the job that I undergo on a daily basis."

"Really? What is it?" Sonic asked.

"Ballad of the Green Berets," Ryan replied with a grin. This gave Sonic an idea. Every once in a while, the Sonic Underground band perform their songs for the children of Sanctuary. It was almost concert time for them, but Sonic had an idea first.

"Can you sing?" Sonic asked. Ryan did not have a good singing voice when it came to harmony songs due to being so flat, but he could sing songs that sounded like he was talking, which was like _Ballad of the Green Berets_.

"I guess I could, why you ask?" Ryan asked.

"Well, my siblings and I are going to put on a concert for the citizens here," Sonic said, "and, after hearing your humming, I wanted to know if you'd like to be the opening act?"

This was something Ryan was not expecting. He was not really used to speaking in public. In fact, public speaking is the number one worst fear among humans. The only time he sang in front of a crowd was when he sang several Bruce Springsteen songs at a family reunion, which he enjoyed doing.

"Well, I guess I could," Ryan said nervously. He never sang in front of strangers before, but he hopes that it will be an enjoying experience.

**7**

Dusk was setting in Sanctuary. There was an outdoors wooden stage set up. On the stage a set of drums, the same kind Manic uses, a piano on one side with a synthesizer adjacent to it, and a racks of guitars on the other. Several large speakers stood on all different sides of the stage. In a large group in front of the stage seemed like hundreds of different furries. Most of them are children, but there were a majority of adults there as well, most likely to be parents or chaperones.

Ryan stood backstage nervous. In his bag, he seems to have found a beret. He remembered packing the beret in while trying to escape from his home from Sleet and Dingo. The beret is, obviously, green. On the front is the flash insignia, shaped like a U with the two tops connected. The flash insignia on his beret is fully black, meaning he is part of the Fifth Special Forces Group. Pinned on the front of the flash insignia is a metal clip of the Special Forces emblem, a banner with the motto De Oppresso Liber with two arrows crossing over each other and a dagger up the middle. Had Ryan been an officer, the flash would have his officer insignia rank instead of the Special Forces emblem.

"I'm a little nervous," Ryan admitted as he slid the green beret on his head. He tucked the huge portion of his hair behind him so it does not show. Ryan wore his usual attire but kept his gun, with holster, and knife hidden away in the guest bedroom that the members of Sanctuary gave him for the time being.

"Ryan, just relax," Sonic told him. "It's okay to be nervous. Let it out right here before going on stage. Remember, you are representing the music of the Sonic Underground."

Ryan grinned hearing that. In every episode of 'Sonic Underground,' the triplets play a short song that mainly describes the theme of the episode. One of the reasons it was cancelled was because of the songs used, but Ryan did enjoy a lot of the songs. Some he was not fond of but he liked most of them.

Ryan exhaled, trying to calm down. Soon, he was able to control his stress. He let out one long sigh and remembered the lyrics in his head. He gave a look up at Sonic and nodded.

"I'm ready," Ryan told him. He then turned his attention to Manic. "You remember the beat, Manic?"

Manic nodded in reply. Earlier, Ryan taught him the beat of the song. Soon, the two stood up and walked out on the stage.

As soon as Ryan got on stage, a single spotlight shown on him. The furries of Sanctuary clapped for him, they seemed to have got themselves used to seeing a human amongst them. Ryan slowly approached the microphone, which has been extended high to Ryan's height. Manic sat at his drum set ready to play.

"Uh, hello," Ryan said almost nervously in the microphone. There was a tint of feedback, but the furries watching him seemed impressed with what Ryan had to say. "As most of you are aware, I'm a Special Forces Operator of the United States Army on planet Earth, we are commonly known as Green Berets. This song is special, written back in 1964 by a former Green Beret, Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. This song was written by him that explains the true heart of what Green Berets are."

Ryan turned and faced Manic. He gave him a nod and Manic replied by drumming his drum set in a smooth military rhythm. Ryan faced the audience again and felt nervous. He stood there with both arms at his sides with his mouth less than a centimeter from the microphone. Then, Ryan began his song:

_Fighting soldiers from the sky_

_Fearless men who jump and die_

_Men who mean just what they say_

_The brave men of the Green Beret_

_Silver wings upon their chest_

_These are men, America's best_

_One hundred men will test today_

_But only three win the Green Beret_

_Trained to live off nature's land_

_Trained in combat, hand-to-hand_

_Men who fight by night and day_

_Courage picked from the Green Beret_

_Silver wings upon their chest_

_These are men, America's best_

_One hundred men will test today_

_But only three win the Green Beret_

_Back at home, a young wife waits_

_Her Green Beret has met his fate_

_He has died for those oppressed_

_Giving her his last request_

_Put Silver wings on my son's chest_

_Make him one of America's best_

_He'll be a man they'll test one day_

_Have him win the Green Beret_

Manic finished by tapping on the cymbals. Ryan stood back and bowed, keeping his arms at his sides, like in Japanese tradition. Ryan was surprised to hear clapping and cheering just as the song came to an end. As he straightened back up, he let out a nervous sigh. Ryan then walked back to the microphone.

"Thank you," Ryan said in the microphone. "Now, let's give it up for the Sonic Underground!" The furries in front of the stage sheered as Sonic and Sonia ran on the stage. Ryan shook Sonic's hand and Sonia's as he walked by. He then walked up to Manic and shook his hand. Although no one was able to hear him, Manic understood Ryan's lip saying 'thank you.' He ran off stage to listen in on the Sonic Underground's band.

Little did anyone realize was something important. Not too far away, in Cyrus' guest bedroom, his laptop was beeping with the message sent by Queen Aleena. Unfortunately, no one picked up on it for a while.

**8**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

The rain poured down hard, but the recruits seemed to care less. This training exercise was completely different. This time, their rifles bore an electronic device on the muzzle of their firearms and the rifles were loaded with blanks. The devices on their rifles are called MILES, Multiple Infrared Laser Engagement System. When a blank round is fired, it sends out a laser pulse, just like in laser-tag games that children used to play. Strapped on their bodies and around their boonie hats are laser sensitive sensors. If they get hit by a laser pulse, a buzzer will go off, indicating that the recruit is killed.

It was the final test of the recruits in the collective phase. They had a mission to sneak to a makeshift enemy base and capture a warlord known to be there. The rain came down hard on them in the night. One of the elements, Ryan's elements, bore Ghillie suits as they crept slowly toward the large makeshift enemy base. It had a barbed wire fence all around the complex, four watch towers, and a main building in the center. Most of the instructors are within the base wearing foreign battle dress uniform attire and brandishing AK-47's with MILES gear on them as well.

Falcon came up with a plan. He leaned close to Ryan and whispered quietly in his ear while pointing at the watch towers.

"Perreault," Falcon whispered, "take out the four watch towers and rip right in with gold element on the south eastern side of the base. Red element, move in from the north and hold a perimeter around the building. We'll come in through the barbed wire using clippers. Ready, go."

Red element, not Ryan's, did as they were told. They slowly crept their way toward the north compound entrance. Ryan laid prone while aiming his ACOG mounted on his M4. Luckily, he equipped his rifle with a silencer. He aimed for the watch tower with the lowest light, so the others would not see him. Ryan inhaled, exhaled, and squeezed the trigger, emitting a soft snapping sound.

In the watch tower, the instructor heard his MILES gear buzz. Only the person wearing the gear can hear their own buzz. He wondered where it came from, but he decided to just lie down in the cabin of the tower he was in.

"Lead, this is Perreault, one watch tower down," Ryan whispered in his radio.

"Good work, take out the rest. Update me on your progress," Falcon told him over the radio all the way from the southeast of the compound with wire clippers in his hand.

Ryan steadied his aim on the closest watch tower guard, completely unaware that one of theirs was taken down. He did the same routine; aim, inhale, exhaled, trigger squeeze, and the gun emitted a soft snap. Again, the instructor in the watch tower heard his own buzzer and dropped.

"Lead, this is Perreault, watch tower two taken out," Ryan whispered.

"Good, take out the watch tower near the south east entrance to cover us," Falcon mentioned over the radio. Ryan did the same again. He aimed for the individual in the tower and shot him.

"Lead this is Perreault, watch tower three taken out."

"Outstanding, take out the remaining watch tower and regroup with us."

"Roger that," Ryan whispered. Again, he aimed his M4 rifle at the last tower and, again, shot the guy. All four watch towers were taken down. "Lead, this is Perreault, watch towers taken down, moving to you."

"Copy that," Falcon replied.

Ryan slowly made his way down the shadow paths of the compound as the head rain bore down on his boonie hat, making the camouflage darker. He met up with the other recruits at the end of the barbed wire fence. Falcon gestured everyone to pull out their wire cutters. Each one did so and they all slowly clipped away at the fence, leaving a big hole.

With the hole in the fence cut opened, the recruits had access to the inside. The nine recruits slowly crept their way to the back of the complex while the other ten remained to the north in case of emergencies. The recruits checked the windows if they were wired. They were not. Slowly, they creak opened the windows open and piled inside the building.

Inside the building, the search began. Their intelligence said that the commanding officer would be on the second floor. So far, no resistance. The nine recruits, with their weapons ready, slowly crept up the stairs leading them to a hallway. The hallway had three different doors. Instead of risking going from room to room, they decided to check under the doors.

Ryan holstered his M4 over his shoulder and pulled out an optical cable. The optical cable had a small PDA screen on it, showing what the camera shown. Ryan cautiously stuck the cable under the door and the screen shown that the room was empty. They moved on to the next room and it shown three instructors dressed like the enemy, but none of them was who they were after. They finally checked the last room and say the target with three other soldiers as well.

Falcon decided to go for a clean double-action sweep. That means, two sections will accomplish two tasks at once. Four of the recruits will break the door with the three soldiers and the other four, including Ryan, will breach the room with the commander. Falcon will stay in the hallway as a lookout.

"Check the locks," Falcon whispered. They slowly did, both of them were unlocked. "Breach, bang, and clear on my mark." The recruits readied their flash bangs, which were the only real-life weapons they had with them. "Three, two, one, go!"

The two doors were flung open at the same time and the flash bangs were tossed in. The eight recruits burst in the rooms and gunfire was heard. Ryan himself shot one of the three soldiers with the commander. The instructors' buzzers went off so they dropped playing dead.

"You! On the ground! Get on the ground!" Ryan shouted, aiming his M4 at the commander. The mock commander got down on all fours and one of the recruits handcuffed him.

Outside, the instructors playing terrorists heard the gunfire. Just as they were about to make entry to the complex, the ten recruit element at the north gate open fired on them out of surprise. Within a second, all the instructors' buzzers went off, so they all dropped in the mud.

"Lead, this is Davis, exterior is secured," Davis said in his radio.

"Good work, hold position," Falcon told him over the radio. Within a minute, the nine recruits exited the complex with the handcuffed commander. They began performing a silent peel toward the extraction. A silent peel is exactly like a peel except no gunfire, just coordinated movement to watch every corner as they move.

Quickly, the recruits make it to a large grassy field which is supposed to be their extraction. The 19 soldiers gathered around with their cuffed mock commander.

"Is that everybody?" Falcon shouted out. After a count, Falcon tossed a smoke grenade out in the clearing, emitting a huge puff of yellow smoke. In several minutes, three Black Hawk helicopters arrived.

All 19 soldiers carried the commander to the Black Hawks and boarded in them one at a time. The helicopters lifted in the air and headed back to Fort Bragg just a few miles away. Ryan himself felt full relief that he made it all the way to finish the Collective phase of his Special Forces training. The biggest relief he felt was that graduation was only seven weeks away. Problem is, his true limits will be exposed in those seven weeks to come.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	12. Leaving and Language

**CHAPTER 12**

**Leaving and Language**

**1**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

The 17 recruits waited impatiently for the results in the barracks classroom. It was the last day of the Collective phase for their Special Forces training. Ryan and Davis talked about their chances of passing. Before anyone knew it, one of the Sergeant Majors entered in the classroom with a sheet in his hands. He was about to pin it up on the cork board when then recruits gathered around him like teenagers seeing if they made a sports team.

"Hey, hey, hey," the Sergeant called back on them. "Wait until I put it up first."

The Sergeant Major waited for no reply. He pinned the paper on the cork board and squeezed his way out of the crowd. The Sergeant stood at the door frame waiting.

One by the, the recruits gathered around the sheet of paper, waiting to see their results. Ryan was one of the first one's in line to swarm the Sergeant. He first looked at the sheet and saw the name 'SSgt. Davis, Robert L.' Then he looked down to the near bottom of the list where his name would be. Sure enough, Ryan saw his name, 'Cpl. Perreault, Ryan M.' printed near the bottom of the alphabetical list.

Ryan zigzagged out of the crowd and walked right up to Davis. Davis himself was waiting in line but got his answer when Ryan told him.

"Robert, you passed," Ryan told him in cheers. Davis stopped and threw his fists in the air.

"Awesome! What about you?" Davis asked. Ryan nodded. "Great job, man." Ryan and Davis did a high-five. They are now going off for the four weeks of the Language phase. They both requested to take Arabic and got their requests. The entire room was full of cheering since mostly all of them made it.

"How come I didn't make it?" Roselyn asked the Sergeant. Ryan and Davis looked over and saw Roselyn, Brick, and Carpenter next to the Sergeant at the door.

"Sorry, Roselyn, but I saw your performance in the team exercises, you weren't a team player," the Sergeant told him. That was true, Ryan noticed Recruit Roselyn doing things his own way. It was like that episode on the television series _S.W.A.T._ when a rookie joined Hondo's SWAT team but did things his own way, jeopardizing the operations.

"What about me? I was a team player," Lieutenant Carpenter told the Sergeant.

"You're an officer, you're supposed to be a team leader, you lead by example which is what you didn't do," the Sergeant told him. Then the Sergeant turned to Warrant Officer Brick and said, "And you, you didn't communicate. One part of being a team leader or player is the use of communications. One wrong slip and it's game over. You three are getting rolled. Follow me."

The three disappointed recruits followed the Sergeant out of the barracks. They were never seen by this class regiment again. The class regiment was now down to 14 recruits. Just as the four left, Colonel Moss entered the room.

"No need to call attention," the Colonel quickly said. When a high-ranking officer enters a room full of low-ranking personnel, one of them shouts out 'Room Attention!' and they all stand at attention. In response, the officer would then tell them to go back as they were. Moss stood up in front of the podium and looked at the recruits. "No need to take a seat either. Now, first off, I'm proud of all of you who have made it this far. Hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-ah!" the recruits shouted back in glee.

"Now, for the next four weeks, we will be going into the Language Phase of your Special Forces training," Moss explained to them. "You have all requested different languages, but we have the final say. Majority rules that you guys will be learning Arabic."

Most of the recruits shouted happily on that. Only a few were not so pleased.

"Now, not only will we be teaching you how to speak Arabic, but we will teach you how to blend in with their society," Moss told them. "You will look, live, think, eat, and act foreign as well as speak it. Understood?"

"Hoo-ah!" the recruits replied.

"Outstanding, now everyone take a seat and let's begin," Moss ordered them. The recruits took a seat in their chairs behind the tables. The lecture began with a slide-show.

**2**

_PRESENT DAY_

It was not until near-dusk when Cyrus checked his messages on his laptop. He was unable to check them last night due to the concert and was unable to check them during the day due to caring for the children of Sanctuary. As soon as dusk was slowly starting to descend, Cyrus flipped open his laptop, which immediately turned it on. His desktop screenshot was displayed showing the same photograph of himself and the triplet hedgehogs.

The first thing he noticed was his messenger program icon blinking, meaning he has got new messages. Cyrus double-clicked on the icon which then displayed a dialogue box asking for his user name and password. His username, by default, was already entered in the dialogue box but he still had to type in his password. Due to his computer storing so much sensitive data, he does not wish to save his password every time he opens it. Cyrus typed it in and his inbox opened with an animation of a mailbox opening and a letter flying out to cover the screen.

There was only one message in the inbox with an attachment. Cyrus double-clicked on it, which displayed Queen Aleena's message, telling him that the DMD will be activated in 24 hours. Quickly, Cyrus checked what time the message was sent: 1:38 A.M., Today. The time currently was 6:42 P.M.

"Oh no, 17 hours have passed," Cyrus harshly whispered to himself. Only six hours remain. Quickly, Cyrus hit the Control and P keys together, telling the computer to print the message. Next to him, his portal printer released a piece of paper with Aleena's message. Cyrus just grabbed it and started to run outside to find Ryan.

**3**

Ryan sat on a lawn chair all alone as the sun was just over the horizon, almost ready to turn the clouds pink. Resting on his head is his green beret which he went through hell to earn, and just to return to hell for the meaning behind it. It did not matter what Ryan went through during his tours of duty, because he really loved his job. All of a sudden, Cyrus sped up to Ryan and skidded to a halt, kicking dirt in the air.

"Hey, Ryan, bad news," Cyrus called out.

"What is it, Cy?" Ryan asked.

"Big trouble!" Cyrus said worriedly.

"What is it?" Ryan asked impatiently. Cyrus quickly forced the piece of paper in Ryan's hands. Ryan started to look at it.

"Robotnik lied about the Dimensional Matter Displacer. He's starting the charging process to open it, but he will use a human shield on it to prevent you from going through it."

"What?"

"The process will be done in almost 6 hours! You got to leave Sanctuary and get that portal open and go home or—" Cyrus did not need to continue his statement. Ryan knew exactly what he meant.

"Or I'll be stuck on Mobius for the rest of my life?" Ryan asked in fear.

Cyrus nodded his head.

"I knew there is a catch to everything! I can't do it alone, ya know."

"I know. We'll all go with you," Cyrus told him. Suddenly, Ryan remembered someone else who was important and was a good fighter.

"What about Aleena?"

"She's already there."

"I need to talk to her!"

Without waiting a for a reply, Ryan got up and started running to the hut where Cyrus ran out of. Cyrus, closely behind, followed him. Cyrus decided not to talk Ryan out of this one.

**4**

Ryan was the first to enter Cyrus' hut. He immediately spotted the laptop on the desk. Ryan ran for it and sat in a chair at running speed.

"You got an instant messenger program on this?" Ryan asked nervously.

"Yeah, let me activate it for you," Cyrus told him.

Ryan leaned back while Cyrus stood over the laptop and took a hold on the computer mouse. He minimized the messenger program and double-clicked on an icon that looked like the letters IM. Cyrus activated it and popping up was a strange messenger program Ryan never saw before, but it did have all the functions and similarities as the messenger programs back home. The only difference was the layout. Cyrus quickly typed in his password and used his pinky to hit the 'Enter' key. Then, a buddy list window showed up. One of them was a user name saying 'Queenwannabe' which was obviously Aleena's. Not even the triplet hedgehogs know about this, it seems as if Cyrus has had contact with Aleena before.

"Okay, there she is," Cyrus said pointing to her user name.

Back in Robotropolis, Aleena, still in the abandoned building in disguise, saw Cyrus' user name 'Lionnerd' appear on her laptops. It was a good thing she was looking at her laptops at the time because she set them all on mute to prevent anyone from hearing her.

Ryan double-clicked on Queenwannabe started typing in his message. He always used his pinky to hit 'Enter.' In response, Aleena typed her replying messages the same way.

Lionnerd: Aleena, this is Ryan

Queenwannabe: Ryan? What's going on?

Lionnerd: Cyrus gave me yer message, where are ya?

Queenwannabe: I cant say

Lionnerd: understood, what room is the dmd located?

Queenwannabe: top, north west, just below the flight desk, identified by sounds of incoming jets

Lionnerd: # of swatbots?

Queenwannabe: estimated between 50-60

Lionnerd: too much, I need yer help

Queenwannabe: will my children be with you?

Lionnerd: unfortunately yes

Queenwannabe: then I cant but I can provide recon

Lionnerd: perfect, you got a weapon?

Queenwannabe: no

Lionnerd: I'll leave ya a sniper rifle, just tell me where to drop it off

Queenwannabe: how about the corner of main and robot street?

Lionnerd: good, that's far enough away, ya got a radio?

Queenwannabe: yes, freq is 102.1 MHz

Lionnerd: is there a safe passage inside?

Queenwannabe: yes, same place you escaped from last time

Lionnerd: you saw me?

Queenwannabe: yeah

Lionnerd: you got a map of the building complex?

Queenwannabe: yeah, I can quarterback you

Lionnerd: outstanding, can ya talk me through to destroy this human shield program?

Queenwannabe: that's easy, ya can shoot it

Lionnerd: ok, well be on our way

Queenwannabe: WAIT!

Lionnerd: what?

Queenwannabe: one more thing, tell my children I love them

Lionnerd: will do, good luck

Queenwannabe: youre the one who'll need luck

Lionnerd: I'm wishing in on ya anyway

Queenwannabe: Okay, see ya soon

Lionnerd: See ya

Ryan immediately got out of the chair, almost knocking Cyrus over, and ran to Cyrus' closet.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Cyrus asked quickly.

"I got to get my weapons from your closet," Ryan replied opening it up. Just as Ryan suspected, his black gear and Kevlar hung on its coat hanger like a dead man. Ryan took it off and headed in the bathroom to slip it on.

In the bathroom, Ryan kept on his black T-shirt and camouflage pants with tan boots as he slipped on his gear. It was surprising to him that, in the weeks Ryan has been on Mobius, his cloths never seemed to stink or show any signs of sweat. He looked up in the cartoon mirror. He saw his perfect reflection in the mirror, but it looks like a Photoshop picture of him pasted on a cartoon background. Actually, it looks like an Adobe After Effects video of him on a cartoon background, as if he was in the movie _Space Jam _or something. The shocking thing Ryan saw was that he has not shaved in weeks, yet his facial hair remained gone. He remembered he shaved his facial shadow a few days prior to arriving on Mobius. For his time in Iraq, he had to grow out a beard in his unit to prevent him from standing out, which really bothered him. Beards itch his face a lot. When he got his vacation, Ryan was excited to shave it all off, leaving a nice clean and smooth face. It has been three weeks since he was on Mobius and his beard never grew back.

Ryan snapped out of it. He slipped on his Kevlar vest with his ammunition pockets. He looked in the mirror seeing the cartoon vest and noticed it looked like his head and arms have been pasted in a Photoshop of him and a cartoon background with a vest. The only thing that pleased him about his image in the mirror was his green beret, with the black 5th Special Forces Group emblem on the front, still resting on his head.

**5**

In the cafeteria, Sonic, Sonia, and Manic are sitting at a table all alone. Sonic is eating chili dogs by the dozens. Although Ryan taught him how to be a Green Beret, he sure is still the same Sonic everyone knew him as. Sonia and Manic sat across from Sonic annoyed at his behavior. Sonia and Manic certainly have not changed much since their training; Sonia still prefers royalty and Manic is still a kleptomaniac.

All of a sudden, Ryan burst into the cafeteria. He rushed toward the triplet hedgehogs wearing his Kevlar vest, which was the only cartoon attire on him. In his arms is his cartoon M8 Carbine rifle. Swung over Ryan's shoulder is his olive-drab bag he used to pack all of his stuff with him before being taken to Mobius. Clipped to his belt on the right side is his standard Heckler and Koch USP sidearm and clipped to his belt behind his back is his Heckler and Koch 50 Tactical Fixed Blade. Still resting on his head is his green beret.

"Hey, Ryan, what's up, dude?" Manic asked, pleased to see Ryan. Sonic was too busy beating his chili dogs to notice, but Sonia noticed the look of fear on Ryan's face and body.

"I only have six hours left to get back home," Ryan quickly said as he stopped and leaned his palms on the cafeteria table, looking down on the hedgehogs.

"What?" Sonia asked in shock.

"I talked to your mother, Queen Aleena, and she said that Robotnik is activating the Dimensional Matter Displacer with a human shield blocker. Once they're done, I can't leave Mobius. I have six hours to get them, open the portal, destroy the blocker, destroy the DMD program, take the disc, and get out," Ryan explained.

"Six hours? I thought it was going to be days," Sonia said confused.

"Robotnik liked to Sleet," Ryan said shaking his head, waving the back of his hair around while the rest was tucked in his beret. "He was afraid Sleet would get captured and confess, which it happened. Sleet gave me false information to unprepared me."

"But how were you able to find out about all this right now?" Sonic asked just after he swallowed in his chili.

"Aleena's on sight," Ryan confessed to them. "She's going to provide me with recon and intelligence when we go in."

"We?" Sonic asked in a look of shock, the same look when the Oracle of Delpius told him he had a brother and a sister from the first episode.

"Yeah," Ryan told them. "As members of our elite unit, the next several hour will be some of the most challenging of our career. We have to, not only get me home, but prevent Robotnik from ever crossing over worlds again, many innocent Earth lives will be in trouble. Our fundamental mission, for the next six hours, will be to use our vast training and knowledge to destroy the enemy's chances of this ever occurring. Let's get out there and do the job I trained you to do. Gear up and head out."

The hedgehogs knew Ryan was right. Sonic gave up the rest of his chili dogs to get prepared to head back to Robotropolis. Sonia and Manic followed suit.

**6**

Manic sped the Sonic Underground van to a halt right at the bridge leading out of Sanctuary. Manic was wearing the black gear used when Ryan taught him tactics for a few weeks. Soon after Manic stopped the van, the soldiers ran out of the huts toward the vehicle. Sonic, Sonia, Cyrus, and Trevor all wore their black gear and MP5 submachine guns made for them. The furries piled into the van via the large back entrance.

"Everyone ready?" Manic asked calling back?

"Wait, where's Ryan?" Sonia asked looking around.

The second Sonia asked that, Ryan came running out of the hut wearing the clothes he wore when coming to Mobius, his black T-shirt tucked into his ACU Digital camouflaged pants, his pants tucked into his Khaki tan boots. Ryan's pistol remained clipped on his right side and his knife clipped to his back horizontally. Swung over his shoulder was his olive-drab bag. His green beret seems to have been put back in his bag since Ryan is not wearing it. The only cartoon-made items on him is his black Kevlar vest with pockets of magazines, a radio earpiece in his ear, and his cartoon-made M8 Carbine in the rifleman version. Slung over his other shoulder, next to his bag, is another M8 Carbine rifle, but this one had a longer grip, longer heavier barrel, and a high-powered scope mounted in place of the rifleman's red-dot aim point.

"Whoa, Ryan, you're looking good," Sonic said giving Ryan a thumb's up.

"Thanks," Ryan replied grinning. Ryan hunched over and sat down next to Sonic in the van. Once he was in, Manic hit a switch causing the back door to close. In seconds, Manic sped down the bridge leaving Sanctuary.

"You sure it's a good idea to let Manic drive?" Ryan asked them.

"No," was the unison response from Sonic, Sonia, Cyrus, and Trevor. Ryan shrugged and could not help but chuckle at the unison response.

Ryan laid back and looked out the circular window at the sight of leaving Sanctuary. He felt the same feeling when he looked out the taxi cab when leaving home for Fort Benning four years ago. Sadness took over Ryan knowing he will never see that place again. Then he realized, if he succeeds in opening the Dimensional Matter Displacer portal, he will never come back to the Sonic Underground world. However, he was still on Mobius, but he won't be if all goes well within six hours. It felt like he was waiting for a shot; nervousness and fear swarm over him, along with the feeling of sadness.

As the sun set down, creating twilight, Ryan was out of view of Sanctuary and on his way back to Robotropolis. The mission will soon begin.

**7**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan stood at the large satellite phone used for communication from military bases to the outside. He is wearing a desert camouflaged battle dress uniform with a turban and holding onto an AK-74U training rifle. The rifle hung off of his shoulder as he held the satellite phone in his right hand and used his thumb to dial in a phone number.

Ryan was calling home, but it was not until after he heard ringing when he realized that his parents do not answer the phone if it says the caller is unknown. He was already deep into the Language Phase to give up a chance to call his parents. The phone stopped ringing.

"Hi, you've reached the Perreault's, we're not home, please leave a name a number and we'll get back to you as soon as we can," his father's voice sounded over the speaker. The machine beeped.

"Hi, it's Ryan, is anyone there?" Ryan asked in the phone. Almost immediately, he heard the phone come off the receiver on the other end.

"Ryan?" a shocked and startled female voice shouted on the other end. Ryan was unaffected by the shocking voice, knowing it was his mom. "Ryan, is that really you?"

"Yeah, mom, it's me," Ryan said back with a slight chuckle.

"Are you coming home?"

"No, sorry mom, I just wanted to know how you've been doing since I was gone," Ryan told her. It was no surprise Ryan's mom was thinking of Ryan to fail or quit this Special Forces training since he signed up for it.

"It's lonely without you."

"Lonely? You got dad and Jackie."

"I know, but I miss you badly."

"I miss you, too. It's been one year on this day since I got in that taxi cab and left home."

"Yeah, it hurt seeing you leave. So, you're on the Language Phase?"

"That's right," Ryan said. He was pleased that his mother was checking the calendar he left for her.

"What's going on in that phase?"

"Well, they're teaching me to speak Arabic and adapt into an Arabic society."

"What do you mean by adapt?"

"Blend in, look like them, avoid raising suspicion. If we were engaged in a fire fight, the enemy wouldn't know who to shoot at."

"That's not really comforting," his mother replied back.

"Relax, mom, I just finished the warfare stages of my training. We are very damn close to being perfect and flawless. You really got to understand our capabilities to know that our military is one of the strongest in the world and I'm proud to be serving along side these guys."

"Ryan, I'm still not sure you will be safe."

"I understand," Ryan replied back with a sad sigh. "But, hey, I'm still the same silly loveable and hilarious wise-cracking smart-ass Ryan you've always known. I just have more skills."

"You sure you're the same?" his mother asked suspiciously.

"Mom, it's like going to medical school. You are trained in all different types of biology and anatomy and you can handle blood and organs with no signs of being sick yourself. The only thing different about that person is his vast knowledge and his ability to handle large amounts of blood, but he is still the same personality."

"Oh, I think I understand you now," his mother finally admitted. "But did you have to choose a career that involves killing?"

"Oh, relax mom, the killing part is small compared to most of the job description," Ryan told her. "Yes, I will end up killing someone, but it's just part of the job."

"Uh, can we change the subject?"

"Sure. How well did you do in your fantasy football last year?"

"Awesome, I won!"

"I'm not surprised," Ryan said with a chuckle. "And yes, we saw the Super Bowl over here."

"Yeah, amazing, huh?"

"Very. I bet your brother didn't like loosing to you again."

"Not in the leased." All of a sudden, a buzzer went off on the base. "What was that?"

"That means class is about to begin for me," Ryan told her over the phone.

"Oh, well good luck," his mom said. For the first time ever, his mother wished him the best in his training, although it did not occur to him until later on that day.

"Thanks mom, I love you," Ryan told her.

"I love you, too. Good bye," his mom said. Ryan was the first to hang up by pressing his thumb on the 'End' button on the phone. He hooked the receiver back on the large box and proceeded to head back to the classroom barracks.

**8**

_PRESENT DAY_

The sun is fully down as the van stopped a street away from the Sonic Underground home base. Manic starred down the street at their home through binoculars. No one thought Robotnik would want to invade their base. Robotnik sent his SWAT bots over at Cyrus' lab, knowing Ryan would not be at the Underground base. Robotnik knew Ryan went off to Sanctuary, but was unaware Ryan knew about the time change in the portal nor the fact that Ryan was back. It would be useless to place SWAT bots at the Underground base if Ryan was hiding off at Sanctuary.

"Okay, area seems clear," Manic said back to them. The five furries and Ryan climbed out of the van on the corner of Main and Robot Street, and slowly walked their way to the base much to Sonic's dismay. Ryan saw Sonic not having a good time walking slowly.

"Sonic, if you want, you can take point," Ryan said to him. "Zip to your house and clear any SWAT Bots inside."

Sonic did not reply. He just sped at high speed toward the base and disappeared inside. As soon as Sonic was in, Ryan unholstered the M8 sniper rifle and placed it in a dark shadow. He then reached in his bag and pulled out a magazine belt with seven 20-round magazines in them, more than needed for a sniper.

"Okay, it's clear," Sonic called back as he stepped out waving at them. In response, the furries and human ran to meet Sonic at the base entrance. "Why are we stopping here?"

"We need to make our plan," Ryan said. The four ran into the house.

In the center of the room was a holographic table like seen in science fiction movies like _Star Wars_ and _X-Men_. The furries followed suit with Ryan as Sonia turned on the machine. The holographic screen shown the city of Robotropolis.

"Can I see a cross-section of the main building?" Ryan asked. Sonia replied by typing a few things on the keypad. Soon, the holographic map zoomed in on the main building and displayed all the rooms, hallways, elevators, and stairs in the complex.

"Where did you get this?" Ryan asked.

"Some things a hedgehog cannot reveal about herself," Sonia said. "The main computer room is at the top where the program is charging. There's an exterior generator, which can be taken out easily, disabling all alarms. We'll all provide cover for you."

"I'll need Manic and Cyrus with me to take out the alarms," Ryan told them. "Cyrus and Trevor, remain outside and provide exterior cover and over watch. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic, you guys are on me. We'll have to work our way up the stairs, avoid the elevators. Easy in, easy out."

"Sounds simple enough," Sonia replied.

"Then let's do it to it!" Ryan said in a Sonic impersonation. Sonia and Manic chuckled and giggled under their breaths.

"Anyway, let's go!" Sonic said. The six loaded their weapons as Sonia deactivated the hologram. Ryan, with a radio clipped to his back connected to an earpiece, switched the frequency to 102.1 MHz. "Everyone, one oh two point one megahertz."

The furries turned their radios and were able to hear each other's breathing on the other ends. They were ready, but just when they were about to leave, someone stopped them at the front door.

"Bartlby?" Sonia said surprisingly.

Behind Bartlby are the same aristocrats at the party and in the street that Ryan encountered. The badger has a bigger bandage on his nose.

"Oh great, the ass squad," Ryan said sarcastically. "Sonic, Sonia, Manic, remember this, when someone is pushing you around, just spit on their shoes," Ryan spat on Bartlby's shoes, "and say, 'Fuck you.'"

"Sonia, I can't believe you're still with this human, I thought he left," Bartlby said.

"Bartlby, step aside, we got some important work to do," Sonia said. Ryan was getting impatient. He looked up at the clock and saw the time was 10:02 P.M., meaning he has only got about three hours left. Impatiently, Ryan grabbed Bartlby's neck collar and threw him to the wall on the door frame.

"Hey, this human has just saved her life," Ryan snarled angrily in his face.

"I'm going for it, now!" the wolf aristocrat yelled. He began to claw Ryan, but Ryan caught his claw and threw him over and on the holographic table. Since it was made of metal, it did not even dent, but it did hurt the wolf's back.

The mink pulled out a chain and began slashing it everywhere at Ryan. Ryan grabbed the chain, whipped it so it wrapped around the mink's foot and he flipped the mink over.

The dog tried to grab Ryan, but Ryan blocked the attack, whipped the chain around the dog's foot and flipped him over his shoulder. The cat tried to grab Ryan, but Ryan grabbed the cats arm and crunched it, then he whipped the chain around the cat's tail and threw him to the dog and landed hard on the dog.

The fox tried a spin-kick on Ryan, but Ryan dodged it and he whipped the chain on the fox's foot and whipped him upward and into a drawer of a filing cabinet. Ryan simply closed the file cabinet drawer sealing the fox inside.

Then Ryan stood face-to-face with the badger aristocrat. The badger still has a broken nose. Soon, Ryan whipped the chain causing it to form around his palm. He then clenched it in a fist, giving him a makeshift brass knuckles. Ryan took one step and slid his trailing foot behind him toward the badger. The badger quickly reached down to his boot and pulled out a knife. Ryan was not expecting this, but he was prepared for anything. In a second, the badger ran toward Ryan with his knife, but Ryan grabbed the badger's wrist with his left hand and punched his fist with the chain on it right into the badger's nose. The badger dropped again, holding his nose in pain.

"So much for futile resistance," Ryan whispered to himself.

The furries and Ryan walked out of the place like nothing happened, passing the hurting aristocrats and scared Bartlby.

"Oh... oh... my... nose..." the badger barely spoke in whispering pain while rolling on the floor.

**9**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

The Language Phase went by quickly, especially for Ryan. Although Ryan was unilingual upon entering the Army, he was a quick learner when it comes to languages. Back home, his neighbor was Portuguese, so she taught Ryan a few Portuguese phrases which he learned quickly. In addition, Ryan was good at accents, which was important in learning a new language.

Four weeks into the Language Phase, Ryan, along with all of the other recruits, mastered the Arabic language. In four weeks, they never learned all he vocabulary words, but they did learn the needed necessary phrases. Their Language training will never end, but this phase was just to teach the recruits if they are capable of learning another foreign language.

They were all given the written test as their final exam. All the recruits taking the test were wearing turbans, had AK's hanging over their shoulders, and wore desert camouflage uniforms. The test was simple, multiple choice questions and important phrases written in the Arabic letters. Only a few small mishaps were confusing to understand, but a majority of the questions were easy. By the end of the test, and the phase, all 17 recruits were almost-masters in the Arabic language. Of course, they would still have their experienced Intelligence and Operations Sergeants to help with the foreign language talking, due to them taking non-stop Language courses.

The phase was over for the recruits. Only three weeks left in Ryan's Special Forces training, but the remaining three weeks will be the hardest in training. Ryan was never prepared for what was about to come up next.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	13. Returning and SERE I

**CHAPTER 13**

**Returning and S.E.R.E. I**

**1**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

The sun was slowly rising over the forest of Fort Bragg. The grass dew was still wet and the morning was chilly even though it was summer. The 14 recruits, with their vast knowledge in the Arabic language, stood around a gazebo wearing their battle dress uniforms, coats, and wool hats and gloves. Next to them are their gear bags full of items they can use to make tents, traps, campfires, and a poncho. The only weapon each one had was a knife. In Ryan's case, he is equipped with a Heckler and Koch 50 Tactical Fixed Blade, the same exact one he has when being taken to Mobius in a few years. He bought it just after Basic Training at a military surplus store.

The recruits were chilly, so they bundled up together, completely unaware of the training that lies ahead. They knew what the training phase was, but they were not expecting such harsh treatment from it.

The recruits heard footsteps approaching them from the front. They looked up and noticed Colonel Moss standing ahead of them, wearing his battle dress uniform, only he bore no coat, no wool gloves, and the only hat he wore was his official green beret, flashing a light blue U-shaped patch, meaning he was part of the 7th Special Forces Group. On the patch is a silver eagle, making him a Colonel. Standing around Moss and the whole gazebo were 14 small Huey helicopters.

"No need to call attention," Colonel Moss quickly said. The recruits were too cold to even flinch. However, Moss seemed to show no sign of being chilly. "Welcome to SERE! Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. For the next three weeks, you men will be dropped into different undisclosed locations in the forest. You must survive out there for a week. Then we will send our instructors out to collect you, but you must prevent them from finding you. If you are caught, you will spend the rest of SERE in our makeshift prisoner of war camp where we will treat you like a POW. It's not going to be easy and it will be anything but fun. Use your survival training to keep yourselves alive. At this point, I'd say I wish you luck, but I would be lying if I did."

Colonel Samuel Moss' words worried the recruits. He spoke like an unfeeling robot. This is what Ryan got himself into. In fact, he saw documentaries about S.E.R.E. and this training phase was the one where he dreaded the most in his training. It finally came, though and he has got to get through it for three weeks. However, they were going to be the longest three weeks of his life.

There was only one good side to this. Ryan is in training to be an Army Special Forces Operator, and he was told that the Air Force, especially pilots, have a much harsher S.E.R.E. course. Ryan will only have to undergo surviving in the wild, evading enemy capture, and resisting interrogation methods. The Air Force has an extra part about water survival, due to pilots having to eject and survive in the open water. Since Ryan won't have to worry about falling in the water in his line of duty, he and the rest of the recruits are spared that. Still did not make S.E.R.E. any easier.

"Okay, everyone, get in a separate Huey and do exactly as the instructors tell you in there," Moss announced just as the 14 Huey's began rotating their rotors. "Move it!"

The recruits, unaffected by Moss' loud yell, grabbed their bags at their feet and charged for different Huey's. No one fought over which one they wanted because they were all the same. Inside of each Huey was an instructor Sergeant they were all familiar with.

Ryan quickly got into a Huey helicopter where there were two pilots and one Sergeant in front of him. It was Master Sergeant Jonathan Fox, the Intelligence Sergeant that was part of their collective training. Ryan strapped himself in the seat with the bag's strap slung over his shoulder.

"Hey, Perreault," Fox said to Ryan, "even though the Colonel didn't wish you luck, I will. Good luck, Corporal."

Ryan grinned at that. He extended his arm to Fox and the strong Master Sergeant grabbed it and shook his hand. The Huey helicopter, along with the others, lifted in the air and flew off in different directions of the large forest surrounding Fort Bragg. S.E.R.E. just started.

**2**

_PRESENT DAY_

It is late at night. Only a few hours remain. The furries and Ryan hid by the side of a street waiting for the SWAT bot patrols to pass by. They all decided to go traditional with their clothes, except for the black vests they bore and the rifles in their hands. They know that once the alarms systems are down, they can get in without being noticed.

"This is taking too long," Sonic said.

"Shut up," Ryan harshly whispered. They waited patiently.

In the adjacent run-down building, Aleena watched over and saw some of the patrols moving away. On her side, leaning against the window, is the M8 sniper rifle and magazine belt Ryan left for her. Aleena peered over to where the generator was and saw that the SWAT bots patrolling it, except for one, were leaving. Aleena pulled out her radio, which looks like a handheld one used for private pilots in training. She turned the frequency to 102.1 MHz and spoke into it.

"Ryan this is Aleena, copy if you read me," Aleena whispered in the radio.

On the ground, hiding amongst the rubble, the six soldiers heard Aleena's call from their earpieces.

"Aleena, we copy," Ryan whispered back. The earpieces the six were wearing were similar to the pieces with the short microphone like cell-phone users wear when driving. Having a cartoon piece sticking in Ryan's ear felt weird but realistic at the same time. He would not of had been able to tell the difference in feelings between a real earpiece and a cartoon earpiece.

"Mother, is that you?" Sonia whispered in with a small tear in her eye. This was not the first time Aleena talked to her kids, but it was so rare that the hedgehogs would feel sad when they could not be with their mother but can talk to her at times.

"Yes, now listen, the SWAT bots patrolling the alarm generator have left, only one remains," Aleena said getting back to business. She knew that there was no time to tell her children how much she loves and misses them. This was business and every second counts.

"Manic, check it out," Ryan whispered to Manic. Manic slowly crawled to the top ridge of the hill of rubble to overlook the generator, but staying low enough so as not to create a silhouette. Sure enough, one SWAT bot remained.

"Confirmed, one remaining," Manic whispered back.

"Aleena, can you take the bot out from your position?" Ryan asked in the radio.

"Yeah, no problem," Aleena replied. She set the radio on the floor next to her laptops. Aleena grabbed on the sniper rifle that Ryan left for her with the 20-round magazine locked and loaded in it. Slowly, Aleena aimed the scope of the rifle right on the SWAT bot. She estimated the bot to be about 90 meters away in no wind. Aleena took in a deep breath, exhaled slowly, inhaled slowly, and held her breath. She aimed the crosshair right on the bot's neck and squeezed the trigger. The gun emitted a muffled snap sound as the bullet hit the SWAT bot square in the chest. Oil spilled out as it short-circuited and collapsed on the ground. Aleena then grabbed her radio and said, "he's down."

"Roger that," Ryan whispered in his headset. He then turned to the furries. "Okay, Manic and Cyrus, on me. The rest of you, hold a perimeter cover around our six. Go."

Immediately, the three got up and made a quick dash to the generator. As soon as Ryan, Manic, and Cyrus reached it, Sonic, Sonia, and Trevor watched each corner for SWAT bots coming. Upon reaching the downed bot, Ryan swung his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed the bot. To his utter surprise, the metallic robot was lighter than he was expecting. It was heavy of course, but he was expecting it to be heavy like a fridge, not as light as a sofa chair. Ryan dragged the bot into a dark corner behind an alley while Manic and Cyrus were working on the generator with their rifles over their shoulders.

The deactivation of the alarms began. Manic pried open a panel door that was colored green. At the same time, Cyrus flipped open his laptop computer.

"Okay, there should be a bunch of panel doors. Your main focus should be the green panel door. Do you see one?" Cyrus asked.

"Already got it," Manic said as he opened the green panel.

"You should see a bunch of thick wires," Cyrus told Manic.

"Yes, I see them," Manic replied.

"You should see three wires that are one half centimeter in diameter. Don't worry about the small wires, just the thick ones," Cyrus said. "Are the colors red and orange?"

"And green, too," Manic said.

"Okay. Cut open the red wire cover but don't cut the wire itself," Cyrus said. Manic took out some special clippers and cut open the covering. "Clip the wire to my laptop." Manic did so, clipping it to a metal rod sticking out of the USB circuit. "Now clip it to the red pylon circuit."

Manic clipped it. "Done."

"I'll take it from here," Cyrus said. He typed in a few things on the keyboard and the laptop beeped. "All done, Manic."

**3**

Inside, the alarms systems were shut down. However, because Manic clipped the wires to Cyrus' laptop, he was able to send a signal in the building's computers. The computers said that the alarms systems are still online. Due to advanced technology, cutting an alarm wire will sound off an alarm, so Manic and Cyrus bypassed it.

**4**

"The alarms are down, Ryan," Manic said, "so we can assist you now."

"Finally," Ryan said as he came back from hiding the SWAT bot. Usually, he would have to dig a hole and bury the body, but since the entire city was made of metal, he had to hide it behind a large dumpster. "Sonic and Sonia, fall in."

Sonic and Sonia got up and ran to Ryan. Of course, Sonic zipped to Ryan at high speed with Sonia trailing behind. Sonia looked angrily at being left behind in the wake of Sonic's speed and for behind forced to lay in rubble for a while.

"Okay, Cyrus, you stay here with Trevor and cover this corner," Ryan said to them. He then spoke in his earpiece. "Aleena, you provide cover on the second corner and coordinate our movements within the structure."

"Roger that," Aleena replied in the radios. On her laptops, she pulled up a 3-D grid map of the building. On the side of the building are six heat-signatures, indicating they are the furries and Ryan. Within the building are a countless number of SWAT bots. Ryan felt weird that Aleena was going to play the role of the sniper coordinator of the team. In a way, Aleena assumed the role of Dieter Weber, his favorite character from the Tom Clancy novel _Rainbow Six_. Dieter Weber, a German sniper and former GSG-9, was Team Rainbow's sniper. In a way, Aleena seemed to be playing as Weber.

"Okay, team, let's move," Ryan whispered to the hedgehogs.

The mission began. Just as Cyrus ran back to meet up with Trevor, the hedgehogs and Ryan ran in a single file toward the bay entrance which Ryan used to escape. Ryan looked over at the control panel he shot weeks ago. It seems to have been fixed, but there was still residue and dents from the bullet. The major parts were fixed though.

"Okay, I count only four inside the loading bay," Aleena said to them over the radios. The three hedgehogs got used to hearing their mother without trying to spark a tear.

Ryan slowly crept inside and saw the four SWAT bots working on electronics, not paying any attention to the open bay door. Ryan looked inside and saw how familiar everything looks since his battle in there. He saw the elevator and the stairs and even bullet holes in the wall shot by his USP. Sadly, Ryan only has two magazines left in his sidearm, the one he used when he came in Mobius.

There was a way inside without alerting the SWAT bots though. Ryan leaned over to the hedgehogs and whispered to them.

"Sonic, I need you to create a diversion," Ryan told him. The words Ryan used was a simple and easy way of marking Sonic as bait.

"A diversion? What do you mean?" Sonic asked.

"Get the SWAT bots after you and take them out using your natural speed powers," Ryan said to him. "Do not, I repeat, do not fire your weapons, we cannot create a disturbance among the complex." Ryan was right, their guns did not have silencers on them sadly. A bots laser blast was muffled in sound as it is and would not raise suspicion, but a loud bang of a firearm was no mistake.

"No problem-o, I'll be back faster than you can say, 'I'm the fastest thing alive,'" Sonic said in his unchanged attitude. In a heartbeat, Sonic zipped inside and faced the SWAT bots. The bots looked over and noticed Sonic, but they also noticed he is wearing a black Kevlar vest and an MP5 submachine gun swung over his shoulder. Nevertheless, it was the 'priority-one hedgehog' standing in front of them. "Yoo-hoo, dumb-bots! Over here!"

The four bots readied themselves for attack. They fired their lasers at Sonic wildly, but Sonic easily zipped in zigzags avoiding the blasts. He then jumped along the ceilings and ran in circles around the bots. Soon, the four got dizzy, and they collapsed with black smoke smoking out of them.

"So much for bad metal-heads," Sonic said to the bots. He turned and waved at the entrance to the gate. "It's all clear."

Ryan, Sonia, and Manic then came running in. There was a security camera in the corner of the room, but they knew that Cyrus looped the security video tapes over so that no one would be able to see them. This was a trick learned in the movie Speed. The four then ran up the small steps on the cement platform leading up to the elevators and the stairs.

Due to safety reasons, they took the stairs. While moving upstairs, they stuck along the outside walls while keeping their guns pointed up above to pie the corners. If they were moving downstairs, soldiers would stay along the inside rails to cover every corner available.

**5**

Robotnik was asleep at his desk when he heard the door slide open. Robotnik took a look at the door and noticed Sleet and Dingo.

"What is it?" Robotnik asked, rubbing his eyes.

"One of the SWAT bots reported a domestic abuse at the hedgehog's home," Sleet said to them. "Among the ones abused was Sir Bartlby Montclair, sir."

"Bartlby?" Robotnik asked.

"Yes, sir, he reported to the SWAT bot that Ryan was there," Sleet said.

"Ryan!" Robotnik shouted, fully wide awake.

"Yes, sir, we have to assume he's back in Robotropolis," Sleet told him. This put Robotnik deep in thought. Although he was unaware he was unable to sound the alarms, he voluntarily did not do it. He believed Ryan could just be on the other side of the city, so sounding an alarm would most likely scare him away and vanish again. On the other hand, he believed Ryan was still unaware of the portal being opened in a few hours as opposed to a few days. Again, sounding an alarm might reveal a significant importance to the building.

"Sleet, Dingo, I want you two to personally find and capture Ryan," Robotnik told the two bounty hunters. In response, Sleet and Dingo grew worried. He remembered the last times they came in contact with Ryan. First, they had to go to Earth and grab him, but were unprepared for his skills he possessed. Of course, at the time, they had no idea Ryan was a Green Beret. The second time, they found Ryan on accident and tried to grab him then and there, but it resulted in Sleet getting interrogated and shocked by the hedgehog's skills as well. Now, Robotnik is ordering them to find Ryan themselves. Sleet and Dingo were afraid of him. Ryan was a three-year Green Beret veteran who saw combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Georgia, Abkhazia, Armenia, and Kuwait.

"Why alone, sir? Ryan's scary," Dingo said in a scaredy-cat tone. Sleet himself felt Dingo's pain but tried his best not to show it.

"Just do it," Robotnik ordered. "Now, go!"

With that, Sleet and Dingo ran out the room, leaving Robotnik at his computer. Robotnik sat down and stared at it. Only about an hour away until the portal activates. On another computer, the human shield program was initiated and ready to activate once the Dimensional Matter Displacer opened.

Of course, even if Ryan finds out about this, he could not fully stop it. In Robotnik's pocket was a think and reinforced computer disk. The label on the disk said, 'DMD' written in a quick black marker. All the files needed to activate the Dimensional Matter Displacer were in that disk as a backup. Ryan would have to take the disk with him in order to prevent Robotnik from opening it again. However, Ryan knew about it and was not going to let Robotnik go back to Earth again.

**6**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

The Huey helicopter hovered over the jungle far away from other Huey's. Ryan and Fox sat inside, waiting for the insertion point. Ryan was trained heavily in the past few days on survival in the jungle and resisting interrogation methods. Now, this was going to test him on that.

"Sergeant, we're right over the drop zone," one of the pilots called back.

The Huey slowed down to a hover over an area where the trees were low. As soon as it stopped and hovered, a rope dropped down and touched the ground.

"Good luck, Perreault!" Fox shouted over the high-powered rotors. "Go! Go! Go!"

Ryan, with his bag over his shoulder, reached out of the Huey and grabbed the rope. He pressed his body against it and used his boots to grab onto it below. Quickly Ryan slid all the way down spinning a bit. He tightened his grip on the last few feet to prevent injuring his ankles which was known to happen in fast-roping. Once Ryan hit the ground, he ran a few feet away, looked up, and signaled a thumb up to the pilots.

The Huey unhooked the rope just before it gained some altitude and flew off. The thick rope collapsed to the ground and coiled in a large ball. The Huey flew up and away, leaving Ryan all alone.

This was it. Ryan's final phase of training. He was alone and now he has to survive out here for about a week, cut off from the rest of the world. At an unexpected time, instructors will be sent out in the jungle to collect all the recruits and Ryan's job was to avoid getting captured. He picked up his bag and walked off, all alone in the jungle wearing his battle dress uniform, coat, wool hat, gloves, and a bag over his shoulder, to find a place to make camp. The only weapon on him is his knife which he will keep on him and go into the Sonic Underground world in a few long years.

**7**

It has only been a few days and Ryan was already feeling the chills. He made a makeshift bed by a swamp. Earlier, Ryan found four trees in a rectangle big enough for him and his equipment. He used his knife to saw away thick branches to create poles. He used the poles to lay them along the sides of the four trees, resting them on top of the crosswise short poles. He then placed cross bars all the way along the length of the swamp bed and topped them by covering them with leaves and grass.

Ryan sat in his makeshift bed in the swamp and stared up at the stars in the sky. He missed his home, but still wanted this job badly. He would not be here if he did not really want it. That was proven in Selection, anyone who was not strong or determined enough to want this job was tested hard during Selection where only nine of the original 80 recruits passed. Still, only six of the original recruits that went with Ryan through this harsh qualification course remained. The five recruits that got rolled in the beginning to going with the nine Selection were still in, plus they still got two Lieutenants and one Warrant Officer, each of them lost somewhere alone undergoing this S.E.R.E. training.

Ryan rolled out of his bed and walked over to his campfire which was ten feet away from his bed and any other trees for that matter. After warming up a bit, Ryan felt thirsty. He walked over to a rain trap he made. It was a bamboo leaf suspended at an angle in the shape of a spout hung by two twigs. Underneath the tip of the leaf was his canteen. Ryan looked inside the canteen and saw it was half full of water due to the dew. A half an hour ago, Ryan dropped in a few drops of iodine in the canteen to purify it. Ryan took the canteen and started slowly chugging down the water. His lips were wet as he licked the water off, enjoying the refreshing taste of the water.

Ryan placed the canteen back under the leaf when he saw something strange approach him. Ryan looked up and saw what appears to be a large adult gray wolf slowly stepping toward him. The Special Forces Operator-in-training slowly sat down in Native American style as the wolf lifted its head up and faced Ryan with its yellow eyes. This was an opportunity for Ryan to kill it and cook it. He was trained how to fight all different kids of animals from his Individual phase of training, such as killing a search dog up-close to avoid detection. However, this wolf just stared at Ryan.

Before joining the army, Ryan was a member, and still is, of a branch of the Defenders of Wildlife organization called 'Save Wolves.' Ryan could easily kill the wolf, but he could not do such an act that his organization was all about preventing. This was not the first time Ryan came in contact with a wolf, but it was the first time coming in contact with a wild one all alone. Slowly, Ryan crouched low on his front and looked upward at the wolf. The wolf responded by tilting its head in confusion, but soon understood Ryan's body language. Ryan was telling this mammal that he did not want to harm him and won't as long as the wolf does not harm Ryan.

Then, Ryan was not expecting what happened next. The wolf slowly stepped forward toward Ryan and sniffed his face. Ryan remained still as the wolf sniffed him. It was a familiar feeling to him, kind of like how Roxy always sniffs him, but this wolf was larger. Then the wolf stepped back and looked over at Ryan's campfire. Ryan looked back and noticed the dead rabbits Ryan caught and hung for use to be eaten later. Ryan looked back at the wolf and saw the look of hunger in his face.

"Are you hungry?" Ryan asked the wolf in a quiet high-pitched voice as if he was talking to a little child. The wolf replied by sitting down like the canine he was and gave a whimper. Like all animals, the wolf easily saw the look of innocence in Ryan. Even though Ryan joined the United States Army at age 16 with special permission and was training to be a Special Forces Operator, the wolf saw that Ryan had no intention of hurting him. In return, the wolf shown no signs of wanting to hurt Ryan.

Cautiously, as not to either provoke the wolf or scare him away, Ryan turned and crawled toward his rack of dead rabbits with the skins ripped off of them. Ryan crawled and unhooked a rabbit off of one of the racks. Slowly, Ryan crawled back and saw the wolf waiting patiently for its meal. Ryan easily saw the tail wagging. He approached the wolf with the dead rabbit, this time smoothly without any fear of the wolf attacking him. Ryan set the dead rabbit on the ground in front of the wolf. Almost immediately, the wolf snapped its head down and started chewing on it. It looked like it has not eaten in a day or two.

"You seem more hungry than me," Ryan told the wolf in a normal tone. "You got pups?" The wolf looked up with blood on his lips and, surprisingly, nodded its head. The wolf then stood up to shake, puffing hair in all directions. It then went back down to continue eating the dead rabbit.

Ryan turned and reached for another one movingly slowly so as not to scare it away. Just as Ryan looked back with the dead rabbit in his hand, he saw another wolf joining in the feast. This one looked female and sick-looking. Ryan was able to tell that this wolf was not rabid. No, this wolf just gave birth. Since the male and female wolves seem to be sharing in on the dead rabbit, Ryan figured that the male wolf was the father of the litter somewhere.

"Hey, here's one for the pups," Ryan said to the two wolves. The female wolf took the rabbit corpse out of Ryan's hand and slowly crept its way back in the dark forest where they came from. The male wolf that Ryan first met gave one last look at him. It stuck its tongue out and panted. The wolf then tilted its head and seemed to hum a smooth tune. Ryan could tell that the wolf was happy and thanked Ryan for the food. It then picked up the remaining piece of the dead rabbit, turned and started heading back down the dark path following the female wolf. In a few seconds, the wolf stopped and looked back at Ryan with the dead rabbit in its mouth. He then turned and continued on following the female back in the darkness.

Ryan had one dead rabbit remaining on his rack, but he was not terrible hungry yet. He looked down and saw a worm slithering on the ground. In an instant, Ryan grabbed the worm in his hands, tilted his head back, and dropped it in his mouth. Ryan did not chew the worm, he just swallowed it whole as it went down his throat.

Ryan was getting tired now. He crawled back to his makeshift bed and started to rest. The night was getting cold but he fell asleep soft and soundly. In a few hours, he would wake up and cook the rabbit by sticking it with a branch and roasting it over the dying fire.

**8**

_PRESENT DAY_

Ryan and the three hedgehogs slowly climbed their way up the stairs. So far, they encountered no resistance. It would seen understandable since it is rare for anyone to take the stairs many stories high, even for lazy robots.

As soon as they made it to a flat plane where the stairs meet the floor, a SWAT bot happened to walk by and noticed. In an instant, Manic, who was covering the floor doors at the time, burst a few rounds at the bot. The SWAT bots quickly fell back spraying oil everywhere. Unfortunately, there were other SWAT bots in the hallway adjacent to the stairs who heard the gunfire and even saw the bot fall back and short-circuit. In response, many SWAT bots started rushing for the double-doors leading to the stairs.

"Uh, Ryan, you got company coming," Aleena said to them over the radios. She was looking at her laptop and saw a group of electromagnetic fields, obviously the radiation released by the SWAT bots, rushing toward the four head signatures on the stairs.

"Yeah, I see it, Aleena," Ryan snorted back in the radio. The hedgehogs and Ryan got in defensive positions behind the walls, and started firing back. The SWAT bots took defensive positions along the hallway as they returned fire. This was bad, they had to get out of there. They could not risk going up or down the stairs for they could get shot in the back despite the covering fire.

Suddenly, Ryan had an idea. He looked across the hall and saw three sets of elevators with the floor numbers displayed above them. Ryan noticed they were on floor 17, and one of the elevators was on 14 and heading up slowly. Ryan ducked back behind the wall to reload his M8.

"Sonia!" Ryan called out.

"What?" Sonia called back.

"Use your keyboard! Create a smoke screen! On me, dash for the elevator! Go!" Ryan ordered as he reloaded his weapon and fired back.

Sonia then touched her keyboard-shaped medallion around her neck and her keyboard synthesizer showed up. Soon, she started playing keys which emitted a huge amount of thick smoke. This was not unfamiliar to Ryan, since he had his share of throwing smoke grenades to obscure enemy vision while moving.

"Okay, head for the elevator!" Ryan called out. He stood up and tapped Manic's shoulder as he ran in the hallway just as the laser blasts stopped. Manic got up and tapped his palm on Sonic's shoulder and followed Ryan. Sonic did the same to Sonia who minimized her keyboard back and followed them.

Ryan slammed his palm on the call elevator button. Since the elevator was moving, he was expecting SWAT bots on the other side. However, someone could have called the elevator meaning no one in it but there could be some waiting on the requested floor.

Quickly the door opened and, as expected, there were two SWAT bots in there. Ryan did not hesitate to burst several rounds at them in full automatic. Just as the smoke was starting to dissipate, the hedgehogs and Ryan ran in the elevator. Ryan quickly and rapidly tapped on the close-door button, which was the same as the ones back home; two triangle arrows pointing at each other with a vertical line in between them. The doors closed just before the SWAT bots noticed they went in the elevator. The elevator slowly started rising up.

"Ryan, what gives, man?" Manic asked. "I thought you said avoid being in elevators."

"It was the only option," Ryan told them disappointedly. "Besides, I got an idea."

"Oh, like this one was so good?" Manic retorted. Ryan then hit the 'Emergency Stop' button which caused the elevator to stop with a jerk. Both Sonic and Manic lost their balance and fell over. Ryan remembered the first tine he was in an elevator and someone played a joke by hitting the stop button. He lost his balance and fell on his back, but laughed about it.

Ryan took his bag off of him just as Sonic and Manic got back up, keeping this MP5's pointed away from each other. Ryan opened his bag and pulled out a few blocks of cartoon explosives. They looked very similar to the ones used by Sonic in the first episode when he zipped through a factory and dropped them along the way. However, Ryan was proud to open one of them up and see how they are not so different than the explosives on Earth. Although Ryan was a recon scout of his ODA, not a demolitionist, he knew a few things about explosives taught to him by Sergeant Davis.

"What are you doing?" Sonic asked feeling his head.

"Open the elevator doors," Ryan ordered. Sonic and Manic looked at each other confused, but Sonia trusted Ryan's judgment.

Sonia pried open the elevator door and realized they were halfway through in the middle of an upper-floor's doors. She pressed her earpiece-less ear to the door and heard no SWAT bots steps or electric humming. Knowing the area was clear, she pried open the elevator doors and took a peek inside. The hallways looked exactly the same as the firefight they had earlier, but no one was present.

"Clear," Sonia said back.

Sonia looked behind her and was shocked at what Ryan was doing, but at the same time understood. Ryan has connected the wired of the explosives together. The control panel on the elevator has been removed and Ryan was connecting the wires to the button that goes to the top floor with the explosives. He set it up so that the bombs won't go off when the button is pressed, but they will go off when the floor is reached. Manic helped set the explosives up with Ryan.

"Okay, they're ready. Get out," Ryan told them. They all climbed out of the half-way elevators one-by-one. Ryan, being the tallest, reached back in the elevator and hit the top floor button. The doors to the elevator started to close and Ryan quickly pulled his body outside before they closed on him. Above the elevator, they saw the numbers slowly begin to rise as it reached the top floor.

**9**

At the top floor, most of the SWAT bots are there guarding Robotnik and the Dimensional Matter Displacer programs. Robotnik himself was still unaware of Ryan actually inside the building. Due to being floors up, he did not hear the gunfire many stories down.

The SWAT bots on the top floor were unaware of what is going to happen to them. Sleet and Dingo have taken the few flights of stairs downward to their quarters to get their gear and weapons. They were ordered by Robotnik to hunt down Ryan, in the fear of them losing their lives in the process.

Back on the top floor, the elevator was getting closer. It passed by Sleet and Dingo's floor without suspicion. Finally, it made it to the top floor emitting a ding sound. Instantly, the explosives blew up. Fire swerved through the hallways, destroying all the SWAT bots in their path. It instantly died down once it hit the edges. When it comes to interior explosions, the blast damage will not make turns. Almost all the SWAT bots were destroyed on the top floor.

Robotnik fell out of his seat at the blast shock. At the same time, Sleet and Dingo fell over even though they were floors away.

"What was that?" Dingo asked in shock.

"Stay here," Sleet replied as he ran out to get to Robotnik's office.

All the way down, the shock reached down the walls down to the generator where the alarm systems were deactivated. The sock disconnected the wires from the laptop, which stopped the video loop in the security cameras. Unfortunately, Cyrus has left his laptop in the area to met up with Trevor in the rubble. He was un aware that the wires got disconnected and that a security camera is staring right at them.

**10**

"Whew, that was radical!" Manic shouted in his surfer-lingo just as the shock died down. Ryan could not help but chuckle at hearing Manic say that.

Now that the top floor was taken care of, the next part would be to actually get up there. The elevators were destroyed in the blast. The stairs would be the second option for SWAT bots to try, so the stairs are a no-go. Then, Ryan looked over and saw the window.

Ryan leaned over and opened the window. He looked down and saw he and the hedgehogs was quite a few stories high. He looked up and saw the top of the building far high up. That was when an idea struck Ryan. He reached in his bag and pulled out a grappling hook, rope, and a hook gun that was issued to him by Cyrus. He loaded it just as the hedgehogs questioned him.

"Ryan, what's going on?" Sonic asked, tapping his foot.

"Well, the elevators are down and the stairs would be full of SWAT bots, so we can up via rope," Ryan explained to them.

Before the hedgehogs got to answer, Ryan leaned out the window and pointed the hook gun up. He fired it and the grappling hook caught a ledge. Ryan leaned out the window with the rope in his hands and he gave it a few test tugs.

"Come on, guys, we got a long way to climb," Ryan told them. "We're almost there."

Ryan sat on the windowsill and pulled himself out using the rope. At this point, Ryan was afraid. He had no idea if the grappling hook has a good hold on what it hooked on to. Luckily, it was latched on a strong and sturdy pipe. Ryan began his long and hard climb up the rope using his legs to literally walk on the wall.

Soon, Ryan felt pressure underneath the rope. He took a glance down and saw Manic following, followed by Sonic and Sonia. He grinned knowing they were following him by example, though Ryan was still no leader. Slowly, the four made their climb up to the top floor.

**11**

Robotnik looked at his security screen and saw that Ryan and the hedgehogs are climbing up the wall. Robotnik was shocked when he saw all the security cameras at once flickered to the present time after the tapes. First, he saw the four SWAT bots destroyed in the cargo room by Sonic, then he saw several destroyed bots in the hallway where the firefight broke out, and then he saw almost all of his SWAT bots burnt to a crisp on his floor. It was safe to assume that the alarm and lockdown systems were disabled as well.

"So, it's the hedgehogs and that Green Beret," Robotnik said sinisterly rubbing his hands together. Even though he has no SWAT bots, on his floor, he did have the element of surprise. He was sure Ryan had no idea he was being watched due to the override systems being taken down. The question now, is, where were the systems in the security cameras being hacked? Only one place could do that, the outside generator.

Robotnik's thinking was interrupted when Sleet ran in the room. He had the look of tiredness when he panted. Obviously, along the way, he had to notice all of the burnt-to-a-crisp SWAT bots in the hallways.

"Robotnik, sir, I Dingo and I felt an explosion. What's going on?" Sleet asked quickly.

"It's that Green Beret. He's coming inside," Robotnik told him while gesturing Sleet to look on the security monitors of Ryan and the hedgehogs climbing up the walls of the building. Sleet grinned as well, but Robotnik looked around and noticed Sleet came in alone. "Hey, where's Dingo?"

**12**

Ryan and the hedgehogs continued to climb up. Their muscles in their arms were beginning to get weak; they had to settle down somewhere and fast or they will lose their grips and fall the long distance down. Soon, Ryan noticed a window under the ledge right above where the grappling hook grabbed on to. Just like in his CQB training with the GSG-9, he kicked his feet on the glass window. Unlike in the movies, it is impossible to swing in a window without getting hurt or killed by the broken glass. In real life, a soldier would kick the glass open as big as he could especially at the bottom of the window. Ryan destroyed the glass at the bottom of the window and used his legs to climb inside.

Ryan was inside of the building again, unknowingly on the floor with Dingo. Ryan reached out and pulled on the rope to pull the hedgehogs inside safely. One by one, he yanked all three inside and set them on the floor feet-first.

Dingo all of a sudden walked out of a door.

"Are you back yet, Sleet?" Dingo asked. He then noticed Ryan and the hedgehogs. Dingo lunged forward to grab Ryan, but Ryan grabbed Dingo's legs and flipped him over his back. Dingo laid flat on his back on the floor.

Ryan grabbed Dingo's neck and held him against the wall. He pointed his USP at Dingo's face.

"If you wanna live, tell me the directions to get to Robotnik's office?" Ryan asked harshly. Dingo shook in fear.

"Take the stairs to the left and climb up five stories until you reach a hallway. Take a right at the hallway and you will reach Robotnik's office. Only a half an hour left until the portal opens," Dingo said in fear. Ryan stared at Dingo's eyes and saw no signs of flinching, wrinkles, or eyes twitching.

"Tell me, why did you lie about the portal opening in three days?" Ryan asked.

"Robotnik lied to us!" Dingo shouted in fear of his life. Lucky for Dingo, Ryan believed him. Ryan then remembered being told of a disc that has the Dimensional Matter Displacer data on it.

"Where's the disc that Robotnik has all of the DMD information on it?" Ryan asked.

"Robotnik has it. It's on a floppy disk," Dingo said.

"Which one?" Ryan said as he choked Dingo harder.

"We only have one floppy disk!" Dingo cried.

"Which computer has the human shield program on it?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know!" Dingo responded. He shown no signs of lying. "It's in the computer room with Robotnik, but I don't know which one it is."

All of a sudden, a whole bunch of SWAT bots ran into the hallway from the stairs.

"Oh, shit!" Ryan yelled. He then grabbed Dingo and held him as a hostage just like he did to Robotnik a long time ago. The SWAT bots raised their laser guns ready to shoot Ryan, despite hitting Dingo.

Suddenly, a silent gunshot broke through the glass, shattering it, and right in the lead SWAT bot. Back in the run-down building, Queen Aleena was using the rifle Ryan gave her to take out the SWAT bots across the area. The bots turned and fired laser blasts in Aleena's general direction. None of them hit her or were close to hitting her, so she kept firing silent gunshots at the SWAT bots.

During the confusion, Dingo jumped Ryan and dashed down the hall. Sonic looked back and saw Dingo making a run for it.

"Ryan, Dingo's getting away!" Sonic shouted. Instantly, the four turned heel and ran after the running Dingo.

"Thanks, Aleena," Ryan said in his radio while running.

Just as the four were about to catch Dingo, Dingo ran between two double-doors facing in the direction Dingo ran in. He skidded on his heel and spun around. Quickly, Dingo threw his body forward as he grabbed the two doors and slammed them shut. Ryan threw his body on the double-doors but Dingo held them closed. Quickly, Dingo slid a metal pin, locking the metal doors in place.

"Damnit," Ryan yelled as he kicked the door.

Ryan aimed his M8 and burst a few rounds at it. The bullets did not even penetrate the metal. They made dents and got stuck in holes, but they did not go further than that. He angrily kicked the doors again.

"Aleena, we're locked outside on the 45th floor," Ryan said in his earpiece. "Is there another way to the office room?"

"Hang on," was Aleena's response. Ryan, and the hedgehogs, heard the sound of keyboard tapping on the other end. After a slight pause, Aleena returned. "Yeah, backtrack the way you came out and go around using the main stairway. You should be able to reach the top floor from there."

"Copy that, we're on our way," Ryan responded already moving. He ran back down the hallway where they came from, passing the inactive SWAT bots laying in puddles of their oil, and toward the stairways.

**13**

_PRESENT DAY_

Dingo burst into the main computer room where Robotnik and Sleet are. They are staring at the computer monitors. The sound of Dingo opening the doors caused Robotnik and Sleet to turn and face the approaching Dingo.

"What are you doing here?" Sleet asked. "I told you to stay put."

"Ryan's here, he's inside with the hedgehogs," Dingo said out of breath.

"We know, we saw them on the monitors. Unfortunately, they disabled the alarms and lockdown" Robotnik told him.

"Sleet, that guy was asking where this room was and mentioned the human shield program," Dingo told them. That was then it all made sense. Robotnik knew that Ryan was on his way to activate the portal and destroy the human shield program. Sleet, however, has his mind on something else. He was staring at one of the security monitors.

"Robotnik, we have two little rats not too far from the building," Sleet said evilly. Sleet pointed at the monitors where it shown Cyrus and Trevor hiding amongst the rubble. They still had no idea that the shockwave disconnected the wires from Cyrus' laptop at the generator.

"Ooh, that is good," Robotnik said.

"Beware you two little rats because here comes the big bad wolf," Sleet said as he looked at the video screen with Cyrus and Trevor on it.

**14**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Six days into S.E.R.E. has passed, and Ryan was doing a good job keeping himself alive, but then the test came. Not too far away, Ryan heard the sounds of people, footsteps, and search dogs combing the area. It was dusk, but Ryan had to get rid of his swamp bed, campfire, and water purification tools he made.

With his bag and poncho, Ryan ran through the jungle to avoid getting detected. He was already a mile away after the instructors raided his campsite. At the same time, the instructors were impressed to see blood and pieces of rare-cooked meat around the area. Usually, S.E.R.E. students would be eating bugs, not a lot of energy. Ryan, however, ate meat and drank purified water, thus he must have a lot of energy on him.

Meanwhile, deep in the jungle, Ryan fast-walked his way through the thickest part of the trees. He had to stay away from bike paths and open areas like swamps for the risk of being in the open and exposing one self. Ryan heard dogs coming from behind him, so he had to lose them. One method is to run around in figure eights to confused the dogs scents.

Ryan then came up to a flowing river. This gave Ryan an idea to avoid the dogs. He remembered seeing this in the made-for-television cartoon movie _Vuk_ about a young fox and his vendetta against the fox hunter who killed his family. In the beginning scene, Vuk's father had to lose the hound chasing him by getting in the water, then back-tracking underneath a tree.

Ryan had to use this plan into play. He ran right into the flowing river until he was knee-deep in it. He then ran up river, against the stream, and then dove behind a low tree trunk surrounded by leaves. Luckily it was a night, thus the instructors could not see him due to their flashlight which were limited.

The instructors ran over to the river where Ryan was. Ryan could not risk a peek from behind the tree. He did hear the instructors disappointed when the dogs howled.

"The dogs lost the scent," one of the instructors grunted.

"Go down stream, he must have gone that way," another instructor called out. Soon the small group of instructors and dogs ran down the stream in the opposite direction of Ryan.

Ryan waited for about half an hour before taking a peek. He was sure that the instructors were gone. He got out from the leaves of the tree and started heading back in the opposite direction. He had too much adrenalin to sleep. He had to stay away from the instructors at all cost. This training program, S.E.R.E. was turning out to be the physically and mentally hardest part of his training so far. What was worse was that he was alone, no one to help him out of a jam. He dug this grave and now he has to dig his way out. It was not going to be easy, but it had to get done somehow.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	14. Capture and SERE II

**CHAPTER 14**

**Capture and S.E.R.E. II**

**1**

Cyrus and Trevor waited outside of the building, overlooking the cargo bay entrance. Ryan and the hedgehogs have been inside for almost an hour. They heard gunfire within the complex, worrying the two furries.

"This is taking way too long," Cyrus whispered impatiently.

"Cyrus, quiet," Trevor whispered.

Queen Aleena stayed in the abandoned building. Not only can she see across at the main building, but she had a good birds-eye view of Cyrus and Trevor far down below. Aleena took one last look at the laptops around her to guide Ryan in, but she soon noticed more electricity running through the wires of the complex on the max. The electrical watts running through the place was greater than expected. The only way this could be explained was the security systems are back up and running again. However, this could not be true because Cyrus programmed an override on the systems.

Aleena leaned out the window and caught a shocking sight. From her distance, she could see the laptop that Cyrus connected to the generator was shut off. Quickly, Aleena whipped out her binoculars and stared down at the generator. To her surprise, she noticed the wires have somehow disconnected. Suddenly, she noticed a group of shadow encircling around Cyrus and Trevor. They were SWAT bots! Aleena looked down at the two furries and saw they had no idea they were surrounded.

Aleena dropped her binoculars and rushed for her radio. After fiddling with the radio in her hands, she switched it to Cyrus and Trevor's signals.

"Cyrus, Trevor, multiple hostiles inbound on your position, locations, one, three, five, six, eight, ten, and eleven o'clock," Aleena quickly spoke in the radio in a harsh loud whisper. Unfortunately, their radios were somehow jammed. There was no way Robotnik knew where Aleena was, and Ryan and the hedgehogs were quickly roaming inside of the structure, so he must have jammed Cyrus and Trevor's radios.

All of a sudden, there was gunfire down below, both lasers and bullets. Aleena quickly rushed over to the window and stared down at the furries and SWAT bots through her binoculars.

All Aleena saw was glimpse of laser blasts, but no details. In an instant, a stray laser blast burst right through the wall of the room Aleena was in. The beam went through the wall and up through the floor almost directly under Aleena. Aleena let out a loud shriek as the laser beam hit. Luckily, only her shawl was synched by the blast. However, Aleena turned and noticed her large radio was severely damaged beyond on-site repairs.

Aleena rolled over to a steel plate behind the wall in hopes of deflecting the laser's crossfire. At that far of a distance, with the exception of a direct-hit, the plate was sure to stop nine-millimeter bullets. The hope of the metal plate stopping laser beams was decreased. Sure, the farter a laser beam passes, the colder it gets decreasing its chances of going through metal, but Aleena was still fairly within range of the battle going on below.

Within seconds, the gunfire and laser blasts stopped. Aleena was too afraid to look, but it was as if her body took control of her. She crawled to the window and peeked down. So was too high up to see what was going on below, so she grabbed her binoculars and took a peek.

Aleena saw that Cyrus and Trevor were disarmed, beaten up, and taken prisoner. The positive aspects were that the two were still alive and seemed well enough since they were walking along side the SWAT bots that held them. They at leased had the power to walk on their own.

Quickly, Aleena had to inform Ryan. The bad thing was that the radio was out of order, so the only option left was to go inside and get Ryan, even at the risk of exposing herself to her children. She grabbed the M8 sniper rifle and swung the strap over her shoulder, she then opened a small hidden compartment underneath a floor board with a small hand-held laser gun in her hand, similar to the one Sleet used in the beginning of the episode 'Getting to Know You' when he cornered the hedgehogs. Aleena then turned to one of her laptops and typed in a code in a window program. Immediately, a timer appeared on the laptop monitor counting down to 60 seconds.

Aleena was done for her job. She stood up and ran out of the abandoned room and into a hallway. Directly at the other end of the hallway was a staircase. Aleena ran down with the rifle bobbing back and fourth over her shoulder and the laser gun in both hands. She descended the staircases as quick as she could; jumping off the last few steps. After six flights of stairs, she ran out of the abandoned building with the door completely gone. As soon as she made it outside, the top room where all of Aleena's communications equipment was, exploded in a muffled fireball! Aleena however, seemed to pay no attention to it. She ran to the cargo bay entrance, the same one where Ryan was taken through, where Ryan escaped, where Ryan and the hedgehogs went through, and where Cyrus and Trevor were taken through. Now, Aleena was about to go through it.

Aleena stopped at the side of the large entrance and took a peek in at the corner of the wall. There were too many SWAT bots to take out by herself, but at the same time, it was the only way inside. Aleena thought that she could initiate a firefight and it as a diversion to get through. It was risky but it was the only option. The queen looked around and saw all the cover positions, such as parked hover vehicles, tool sheds, and cache boxes. She checked the path she was going to take and assumed it was the safest. This was risky, but it was the only option left.

Aleena raised her laser gun with both hands and aimed for the SWAT bot furthest to the right after she sliced-the-pie around the corners. It was now or never. Aleena squeezed the trigger and a laser beam burst through the SWAT bot, emitting a loud pulse squeal sound throughout the cargo bay. The SWAT bot dropped and exploded. Immediately, all the other SWAT bots turned in the direction of Aleena and fired their laser blasts.

A large firefight emerged throughout the cargo bay. Aleena stayed in cover as she kept firing laser pulses at the stationary SWAT bots. The purple hedgehog burst off a few sets of pulse blasts every time the SWAT bots slowed down on their firing. She managed to blow up another one, and quickly spun around the corner to get others. The rest ducked under cover as Aleena continuously and violently shot pulse burst after another. Suddenly, her gun clicked.

Aleena grunted and hid behind cover. Quickly, she ejected the empty batteries from the handle and slid another one in. The lasers were firing at an extreme rate toward her. Quickly, Aleena fired more laser beams at the SWAT bots and two others blew up. Aleena got up and ran inside the cargo bay, sticking to the walls. She dove head first behind a tool shed and that was where Aleena saw an advantage. Right next to the SWAT bots was a large gas tank. It was large enough to take out the line of SWAT bots, but she ran the risk of getting herself blown up as well. It was a risk she had to take.

Aleena aimed at the large fuel tank, which looks no different than the ones on Earth. It was a large cylinder with curved edges like a propane tank. Aleena aimed down the rear sight and the front sight of her gun near where the hose connects to the tank. She focused her vision on the front sight as she aimed for her target. Aleena tapped the trigger and a laser pulse blasted the hose. Fire quickly built into the tank and the gasses created a large explosion throughout the cargo bay. All of the SWAT bots inside were blown and scattered to pieces. Aleena ducked behind the tool shed, which shielded her from the blast. The entire cargo bay blew up to a crisp. The explosion nearly shook the place.

**2**

"Whoa!" Robotnik yelled as he wobbled. The entire place vibrated from the large shockwave of the blast.

**3**

As Ryan and the hedgehogs ran down the stairs to get to the main computer room, he gripped on the railing as the place vibrated, keeping his balance. Soon, it stopped.

"Whoa, dude, what on Mobius was that?" Manic asked. This was no time for questions. As soon as the heavy vibration stopped, the three hedgehogs and one Green Beret made their way toward the computer room.

**4**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

"There he is! Get him!" one of the Master Sergeant's called out.

The night was getting old and the jungle was getting chilly for Ryan, but his adrenalin was keeping him moving. He ran through the jungle at high speed towing just his BDU's, his shoulder bag, his heavy jacket, and his wool black cap. With each step he took, more cold breath filled the air around his head.

A large group of Sergeants with flashlights were chasing Ryan along with their German Shepherd search dogs. Ryan climbed his way over large ridges and rocks to get across rivers and pathways. However, Ryan has a disadvantage on him. The night was dark and the moon was only a thin fingernail, so Ryan was running nearly blind. He ran into low branches several times, whipping across his face. If only he had a mirror, he would see multiple horizontal scratches across his face, one directly underneath his right eye.

The instructors chasing Ryan were getting closer. They could tell Ryan was exhausted from all the running. The Sergeants, however, had comfortable rides in small Jeep Cherokees throughout the forest, whereas Ryan had to slave away on foot in his Bates boots which were now acting like weights to him. The bag with his gear was also slowing him down. He could have just ditch it, but he would run the risk of it getting found and, most importantly, get himself identified. So, even if Ryan successfully made the futile attempt to escape, his gear could identify him and lead the instructors, posing as his temporary enemy, to track down and find him.

Ryan then hit a wall. The jungle then made a huge steep incline upwards. Ryan quickly grabbed onto anything he could, such as rocks or tree stumps. He was exhausted and cold, which slowed down his climbing. By the time he was several feet above the incline, he heard the instructors and dogs making their climb as well. There was no reason to look behind him; he could hear that the Sergeants had no problem climbing up the incline.

Ryan panted in pure exhaustion, watching his breath in the air. It was dark, cold, and Ryan was wet with his own sweat as he ran, plus he was out of breath. All of a sudden, it all happened very quickly. Ryan felt a large hand grab his shoulder. He could have fought back with his knife, maybe stab it in the man's wrists, but he was told not to on this training exercise. In that case, Ryan swung his arm around, getting the large hand off of him and then he kicked his boot in the darkness several times. The first kick, he nailed one of the dogs hard in the face, causing the dog to let out a painful whimper. Another kick tripped whoever grabbed him off his feet.

Ryan though he was going to escape again, but multiple strong hand bound him in place. A hand grabbed his face and, for the last resist, Ryan bit his teeth on one of the fingers. It was not a quick bite; Ryan gripped the index finger's knuckle hard within his teeth. He felt blood squirt in his mouth and heard one of the instructors yell out in pain. To stop that, Ryan felt a hard fist blow to the back of his head.

Ryan felt dizzy and light-headed. He remained conscious enough to feel the instructors throw a large black bag over his head and his wrists being bound behind his back with flexi-cuffs. Quickly, Ryan was forced to his feet where he was being taken deep in the jungle to an awaiting jeep. Though the bag over his head was black, he saw headlights in the distance through the bag and the humming of a vehicle.

As Ryan was being thrown in the back of the Jeep Cherokee, he heard several sounds. He heard the sound of one of the instructors taping a bandage to one of the dogs, must have been the dog that Ryan kicked. It was the only time he felt bad for giving pain.

"That son of a bitch almost bit my finger off!" an instructor yelled out in anger. Ryan recognized the voice; it was Master Sergeant George Stevens, the Operations Sergeant assigned to the recruits during the Collective Phase.

There was anger and confusion in Ryan dark world with multiple sounds and voices around him. Then, Ryan felt a jerk. The jeep he was being towed in started moving away down the forest. Ryan came to understand the true cost of what his future job would require him to do. This was now S.E.R.E. for what it really stands for.

**5**

_PRESENT DAY_

Cyrus and Trevor were thrown into a jail cell by the large SWAT bots in the dungeon. It was not the first time they were captured and put in such a place. Knowing Robotnik, they were awaiting to be robotosized. This was also not their first time waiting the robotosizer as usual. Cyrus almost faced it right after his father was turned into a robot years ago.

**6**

Aleena lifted her head and looked behind the tool shed to see the whole cargo bay all charred black. Some minor flames still exist but will go out on their own eventually. Aleena herself was relieved not to be harmed since she used the tool shed as a heat shield. Some of her black clothes were burnt but were hard to tell with the color of her outfit. To stay blended in as a spy, she traded her purple cloak for a black one before setting up in the abandoned building across the street.

Aleena stood up to continue her objective. She had to tell Ryan of Cyrus and Trevor's capture. Aleena ran her way to the stairs at the end of the large room above the platform. Next to the stairs is the elevator, but she knew Ryan would never risk using the elevator, plus her last recon site picked up Ryan on this stairwell.

Aleena ran up the stairs for a few flights, with her sniper rifle bobbing back and fourth on her shoulder. After a few flights of stairs, she looked up and saw four silhouettes near the top. It was Ryan and her children. This could risk exposing herself to her children, but this had to be done. Besides, she remembered sneaking up on Manic when he was asleep and snuck up behind all three in the forest.

"Ryan!" Aleena called up after throwing her shawl off over her head, exposing her entire head. Her long dark purple hair remained tucked into the black outfit she wore.

Near the top of the flights, Ryan immediately stopped in his heels as the yell echoed throughout the shaft. The three hedgehogs froze in their places as well, knowing the voice exactly. They still never came in close contact with Aleena, but they knew the sound of her voice from a mile away. Ryan leaned down the railing and saw Aleena further down the shaft. Although Ryan could not see the details in Aleena, he knew exactly who it was.

"Aleena?" Ryan called down.

"Mother?" Sonia called.

"Mom, is that you?" Sonic asked in shock. Usually, Aleena would shed a tear meeting them temporarily even if it is just through a hologram. However, this was no time to cry, this was business.

"Guys, we got a problem!" Aleena called up. "Cyrus and Trevor have been compromised, and are taken prisoners!"

"How'd that happen?" Manic called down, shaking off the emotional effect of seeing his mother even from many stories high.

"I don't know, somehow the security cameras got back online," Aleena called up.

"We don't have much time left," Ryan called down after checking his watch. Only about an hour remains until the Dimensional Matter Displacer is active and the human shield is active as well. In this situation, the Captain would split the ODA into two elements, one being led by the Warrant Officer of the team. However, Ryan could not order the triplet hedgehogs to be assigned to their mother due to the prophecy. The prophecy said that the triplet hedgehogs are not allowed to meet their mother until a certain time, and this was most certainly not the time. Instead, Ryan decided to meet Aleena himself while the triplets go off onward. "Aleena, I'm coming down! Sonic, Sonia, Manic, I want you to continue upward toward the control room and hold position, I'll be back up soon."

"You got it, Ryan," Sonic told him giving a thumbs up.

"I mean it, Sonic, don't be a hero, we work together," Ryan told Sonic since Sonic does have an ego problem where he thinks he can do everything by himself.

"Okay, we'll be cool, Ry," Sonic told him.

With that, the triplet hedgehogs ran their way up the stairs, panting out of breath. They have been running up the stairs for quite a while and it has been hurting their knees, even Ryan's. Just as Ryan looked over the edge to see Aleena, he quickly noticed a SWAT bot running down the stairs toward her. At the same time, a SWAT bot was running up the stairs, boxing Aleena in.

"Aleena! Danger close!" Ryan called down as he started running down the stairs. Aleena has already long saw the SWAT bot chasing up at her. She made a mad dash upstairs as the SWAT bot chased her far behind.

Up top, Ryan ran down the stairs as quick as he could. He has had experience going up and down stairs almost every day. When he finished Basic Training, he was assigned to a Massachusetts National Guard Military Police unit near his hometown. The large building where his office was is located on the seventh floor. Ryan, when not tired, always took the stairs up the seven floors saying that the elevator takes too long.

As Aleena ran up, she spotted the SWAT bot up the stairs running after her. She aimed her laser sidearm up at it and shot a blast beam, but missed. She could not risk shooting back from her stand-still position, so she continued rushing up the stairs. The SWAT bot chasing her fired a few laser blasts up at her, each one missed. Aleena continued running like she was fine.

Ryan continued rushing his way down the stairs, keeping his head leaning over the side of the railing to look down at Aleena. From Ryan's high point of view, he can see the two SWAT bots closing in on her. On instinct, Ryan stopped and aimed his XM8 down at the SWAT bots. He burst one round near the higher SWAT bot to stop it. Indeed, the SWAT bot stopped and looked up at Ryan. It then fired a laser burst beam at Ryan, barely missing him. Ryan dodged it and started running down the stairs. The SWAT bot he shot at stared running up the stairs at him.

Aleena continued running upwards, still being chased by the SWAT bot several stories under her. Further up, Ryan and the other SWAT bot were running head-on towards each other. She looked up at saw the upward-running SWAT bot clearly in hitting range. Without thinking and on instinct, she aimed her laser pistol at the bot and fired a laser beam at it. It missed and the SWAT bot stopped and turned to face her. Aleena stood on the stairs and fired two more blasts on instinct. The last blast destroyed the SWAT bot.

All of a sudden, laser blasts shot at Aleena from behind. Aleena stood still for too long and the SWAT bot chasing her finally got its sights on her. Quickly, Aleena ducked and started fast crawling her way up the stairs. She acted like a baby or a dog going up the steep incline quickly, avoiding the laser beam fire. The SWAT bot ran as it fired its laser pulses at the fast-crawling Aleena. Just as it got next to the plane where Aleena was on, several 5.56 bullets pierced its metal and fell back gushing out oil. Ryan stood on top of the plane just above Aleena as he fired his XM8 at full automatic on the SWAT bot. It fell over and tumbled down the stairs onto the next plane.

"Clear!" Ryan called out as he ejected the magazine and slid in another one. "Aleena, talk to me if you're alright."

"I'm fine," Aleena called back. She quickly got back up and ran up the remaining flight of stairs to meet up with Ryan. "Cyrus and Trevor have been taken."

"You told me, where are they?" Ryan asked catching his breath.

"Robotnik doesn't immediately robotosize anyone; it takes several minutes to charge up the machine. Until then, he locks them in his dungeon," Aleena explained.

"Where's that?"

"In the basement, follow me," Aleena told him. Ryan allowed Aleena to take lead as they went down the stairs again, passing the oil-leaking SWAT bot along the way.

**7**

Along the way, Aleena ran to a room just above the basement entrance. This room was full of all different types of explosives and heavy artillery shells. Most of it was familiar to Ryan when his buddy, Davis, devised explosives during their tours with the Special Forces back from Afghanistan all the way to Iran. The room also contained several high-powered bench tools he saw when in woodshop class back in Junior High School.

Ryan looked over and noticed Aleena was carrying a large shell, that looked like it would go into a tank main gun, and placed it on a table with a drill. She measured it using an on-site tape measure. She made a mark where the warhead stops at. She then used the drill press and made a hole where she made the pencil mark. She then carefully placed the shell over a heater that has been activated.

"What are you doing?" Ryan asked.

"Making a bomb," Aleena replied.

While the shell was being heated, Aleena grabbed a frag grenade and carefully took the spoon out of it. She then slipped some wires in it and put the spoon back in. Then she removed the shell from the heater and carefully twisted the top off. Aleena then poured some thick liquid from the shell into a plastic container. She put the grenade's wires into the container and sealed it.

"Hand me a lantern," Aleena told Ryan.

Ryan handed Aleena a lantern, not different from the oil lanterns used on Earth, especially when they are propane powered and used on camping trips. Aleena twisted off the top and removed the ignition fabric from it. Then she tied some other wires to the fabric to the plastic container. Aleena then put the container inside a black bag with the fabric outside.

"Here, Ryan," Aleena said handing the plastic container to Ryan. "You know how to ignite it, right?"

Ryan nodded. "Spark the propane fabric with the spoon of the grenade after placing it where you want it."

"Good," Aleena told him.

"What is this bomb for, anyway?" Ryan asked.

"It's the only bomb powerful enough to break open the door to the dungeon where you and I will burst through and save Cyrus and Trevor," Aleena explained. "Follow me, I'll show you where to plant it."

Aleena ran off in one direction toward the basement and Ryan followed closely behind.

**8**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan was lying on his side with his wrists bound behind him from flex-cuffs and a black paper bag covered his head. He could not see where he was going, but he was able to hear multiple vehicles with the Jeep Cherokee he was in like a convoy. These vehicles were taking him somewhere and he was sure enough that he did not want to know what or where it is. They were driving miles away from Fort Bragg to a place called Camp Mackall.

The jeep stopped. Ryan, not being strapped in, slid along the jeep's floor. He heard a whole array of jeep doors opening and a lot of grunting. Ryan, unable to see through the paper bag over his head, felt strong hands grab his limbs as he was forced to his feet and thrown to the ground. The ground was hard as dirt. Then he was forced to stand back up and into a certain position.

"Remove the bags," a voice called out, new to Ryan.

In seconds, the paper bag on Ryan's head was whipped off. He was not blinded by any light because it was early morning and the weather was overcast. Ryan looked around and he saw his fellow recruits all standing in a line along side of him side by side. All of the recruits, even the big and strong Davis, looked winded, dehydrated, tired, and fatigued.

Ryan looked up and saw where the voice came from. Standing on a platform high above the recruits was a tall Native American-looking man with broad shoulders and tan skin, revealing the details of his worked-out muscles. His uniform was not the American-standard ACU Digital BDU's, they were tiger-stripped BDU's. Ryan looked around and saw all of the other instructors, only a few he knew, all wearing tiger-stripped BDU's.

"Eye's up! Over here, low-lives," the Native American guy shouted in a booming voice. All 14 recruits snapped their heads toward the soldier. He bore no name tapes or rank insignia, just like the 'nameless-Captain' during Ryan's Selection Course. "Welcome to Camp Mackall, home of S.E.R.E. From now on, you got to fend for yourselves and for your teammates. You are no longer in Fort Bragg and America is farther away than you think. You are all now prisoners of war! Deal with it! There's no going back from here. Sergeants, unbound them, wash them up, and give the trash their new uniforms."

"Yes, sir!" one of the Sergeant shouted. Even though this was S.E.R.E., the instructors still had to follow customs and courtesies, including respecting an officer with the proper address. Obviously, this Native American was an officer and he seems to be in charge of this makeshift prisoner of war camp.

The camp itself looked like photographs of what he saw in Vietnam, bamboo fences, barbed wire, and several metal-plated miniature jail cells. This was nothing like German Stalags from World War Two, this was a torture camp. On the walls and watchtowers of the camp are men roaming around with AK-47's. They made this place look true to life like a real prisoner of war camp.

The Sergeants pulled out a set of clippers and snipped off the flex-cuffs from the recruits. As soon as they were off, they all rubbed their wrists in pain. Ryan looked up and saw another Sergeant approach them with a large hamper full of old Vietnam-era BDU pants, blue raggedy shirts, and over-worn boots. Another Sergeant stood in front of the line of the recruits with a large fire hose in his hand aiming it at the recruits.

"Take off your clothes," the Sergeant with the hose announced. The recruits grunted as they slid their ACU battle dress uniforms off, kicked off their boots, dropped their pants, and stepped out of them. "Your underwear as well!" After another grumble, the recruits slid their underwear's off, leaving all 14 of them butt-naked in the morning dew.

All of a sudden, they were hit. The Sergeant sprayed powerful jet water on the recruits. It was harsher and more powerful than anticipated. The only thing worse was that the recruits heard the S.E.R.E. instructors laughing. Within seconds, the powerful water stopped. Before their eyes could clear up, the Sergeant heaved towels in their faces.

This was being hard on Ryan. Selection was easier than this. Ryan dried himself off along with the other recruits. He was getting cold, his goose bumps easily forming. As he was drying off, the Sergeants then heaved a set of clothes in his face along with a pair of boots; they were the BDU's from the hamper. After Ryan dried himself off, he slipped on the raggedy shirt, then the pants, and his feet in the boots without socks, underwear, or a T-shirt. He was uncomfortable and miserable, but that was the goal these instructors were trying to get at.

Then the recruits saw movement. Two of the Sergeants in the tiger-stripped uniforms were raising a flag on the flagpole. However, they soon noticed that the flag was of different colors, three horizontal stripes. This flag was obviously not American.

"Get your heads down! Off my flag," the S.E.R.E. commander shouted. Immediately, all the recruits snapped their heads away. "You low-lives don't deserve to look at my flag!"

The recruits kept their heads down facing the muddy ground. They were all cold, wet, and miserable and this was just the beginning. The flag rose high and stopped at the top.

"Get them inside!" the Native American commander shouted.

Soon, the recruits were forced to walk forward toward a large makeshift cage made out of bamboo branches and rope. The tops of the bamboo were sharpened at the top, making it impossible to climb over. One by one, the recruits were shoved, thrown, and even kicked hard into the large bamboo cage. With each violent action the instructors made, the more they laughed about it. Once Ryan, who was grabbed at the collar and heaved inside, landing on top of Davis, the S.E.R.E. instructors closed and locked the bamboo gate. They gave one last laugh and left, leaving them all alone.

Ryan felt scared. He felt like he was truly in a prisoner of war camp. If this is what it feels like, he sure hopes he never gets captured while overseas. Luckily, when overseas, rescue units would get him out the next day. Here at S.E.R.E., no one is coming. He just has to tough it out for the rest of the training course which is within a couple weeks, but that felt like months to him.

**9**

_PRESENT DAY_

Inside the dungeon, a large handful of SWAT bots remained on guard around Cyrus and Trevor. They were not as tough as Sonic was, but Robotnik was told by Sleet that they were trained Green Berets like Ryan was, so extra security was added. Several SWAT bots stood at the exits of the dungeon awaiting a rescue operation. Of course, Robotnik figured since the two furries were just captured, Ryan would be unaware of it. However, he was unaware that Queen Aleena was within the building as well and warned Ryan of Cyrus and Trevor's capture.

All of a sudden, Queen Aleena burst inside and instantly shot all the SWAT bots rapidly with her laser pistol. She ran in and dove behind a thick pillar while the other SWAT bots shot at her. Quickly, Aleena pulled out a flash bang grenade, which looks like a short pipe bomb with a grenade pin and spoon on it. She used her thumb to pull out the pin and rolled it right in the middle of the large dungeon.

Bang!

The SWAT bots were blinded. Their vision was flashed bright white and their hearing sensors only picked up a low high-pitched white noise. Immediately, Aleena jumped from cover and fired her laser blasts at the SWAT bots as they wobbled around as if they were in pain. Cyrus and Trevor, also affected by the flash bang, slowly started seeing a single image in their eyes. The white was fading away and all they saw was one picture of what they last saw before the grenade went off. Soon, their vision started coming back, fading from the still image to their true sight. The shellshock noise they heard slowly started to fade as well, just in time to see Aleena breaking the lock on the cell door.

"Hi guys," Aleena said while opening the cell door after she shot the hinges with her sidearm.

"Queen Aleena? Is that you?" Cyrus asked in shock. He, too, has never met Aleena before. Unlike the prophecy, Cyrus and Trevor were not forbidden to meet Aleena before time comes; only her three children were banned on that.

"You guys okay?" Aleena asked.

"Yeah," Trevor replied as the two got up.

Cyrus and Trevor were not physically hurt or beaten up. They were able to get back on their feet and followed Aleena out of the cell. Upon exiting, they were cut off by more SWAT bots at the further corner of the dungeon. There was no time to duck for cover or fire back in fear of getting shot at. However, before Aleena could have time to think, the whole half of the dungeon blew up! Aleena, Cyrus, and Trevor, on the other side, were blown off their feet and backwards several yards before landing hard on their backs making a complete stop.

The three furries looked up to see what happened. A huge chunk of the back half of the dungeon was charred and in flames, like the cargo bay when Aleena shot the gas tank. Then a familiar silhouette stepped out into the open just as the white smoke began to settle. Just as Aleena expected, Ryan walked out into the open, waving at the three furries from across the large room.

"Good job using that bomb," Aleena said, giving Ryan a thumbs up. Ryan nodded his head smiling. "Let's get out of here."

Ryan ran up to the furries just as Aleena, Cyrus, and Trevor stood up. They all ran out of the dungeon, the same exit where Aleena stepped in. They passed the weapons room and toward the staircase, the same staircase where Ryan and Aleena fought the SWAT bots. Just as they made it to the double doors leading to the burnt-up cargo bay, they opened them and saw the room with six SWAT bots.

"Don't move," a SWAT Bot ordered. The four froze in their tracks. It was silent after a while, until Aleena holsters her laser sidearm and slowly approached the SWAT bots.

"I got them, Ryan," Aleena whispered.

"You sure?" Ryan replied back.

"Yup."

"Okay."

"Ryan, are you going to let Aleena—" Cyrus began to say, but Ryan interrupted in a whisper.

"Watch this, guys, she's got a gift," Ryan whispered. Aleena stood in front of the bots with her arms still raised.

"You do know that imprisoning civilians over hatred and destruction is a serious crime," Aleena quickly said followed by a chuckle. The SWAT bots kept their imbedded laser guns pointed at her. Aleena slowly approached them and continued to say, "I personally don't think you guys would want to work for a slob like Robotnik. Why no go your own ways instead?"

Aleena continued approaching the SWAT bots slowly with both of her arms rose along her head. The SWAT bot in the front started to get worried; it placed both arms forward cupping its left hand under the gun in his right.

Aleena slowly approached the bot showing no signs of stopping. She then stepped within the attack-zone, which was just in reach of the SWAT bots laser gun. All of a sudden, Aleena snapped her right arm across the SWAT bots' arms, stepped out, and hooked her arm downward around the bots' gun-holding arm. Quickly, she turned her body into the side of the gun to prevent it from shooting at her. She finished by using her body weight to flip the SWAT bot over. However, due to the gun being imbedded in the SWAT bot, there was nothing to grab for her. The bot fell over head first in the ground and the head cracked off.

Due to the fight happening so close, the SWAT bots could not risk shooting which might cause friendly fire amongst themselves. Another one of the large robots ran to Aleena started giving her a high kick. It was too late for Aleena to stop it, so she stepped out and hooked her arms around the SWAT bots leg. Then she licked her legs behind the SWAT bots planted knee and it dropped hard on the ground, breaking many circuits in it.

"Holy," Trevor said as his and Cyrus' jaws dropped.

Aleena quickly got back on her feet to see another SWAT bot charging at her. It threw a simple roundhouse punch toward Aleena. Aleena blocked it with her left arm, stepped in, and used her momentum to strike the SWAT bots' face with her right elbow. While the bot was knocked out for a second, Aleena snapped the SWAT bots punching arm upward and hooked it with both of her arms. The SWAT bot tried to be brave again. It used its left arm to try and punch Aleena, but Aleena simply slapped it away with her left arm, then she chopped her left hand on the SWAT bots neck, forcing her to take the SWAT bot down on its back.

Before Aleena had a chance to get up, one of the SWAT bots grabbed her left upper arm and forced her to stand. In this case, Aleena had the upper hand. She whipped her left arm and hooked the SWAT bots grabbing arm. Then she used her left hand to grab the bots' thumb and forced it down to the ground. Aleena finished by chopping the side of her right hand behind the bots neck, shutting it down.

As soon as Aleena got up, she saw another SWAT bot charging at her with both arms out in front like a wrestler. Quickly, Aleena got up and held her left arm in an L shape. The SWAT bot ran into Aleena's stationary elbow right in the collar, shocking it. While the SWAT bot was shocked, Aleena wrapped both of her arms around the bots' neck and left arm in a headlock. She forced herself to collapse on the ground taking the SWAT bot with her. Within seconds, Aleena pinned the robot down and she hit a button on the back of its beck, shutting it down.

Aleena kicked her legs up in an arch and whipped herself back on her feet. She turned and saw the last SWAT bot standing close-by. Instantly, the SWAT bot grabbed Aleena by the neck, however Aleena remained calm. Quickly, Aleena raised both of her arms and spun on her heel to the right. Her left arm knocked the robot's grip off of her neck. She then quickly used her left arm and chopped her hand on the bots' neck and soon followed up with a kick to the groin. The SWAT bot was deactivated when she chopped her hand to the neck but habits made her follow up with the kick. The kick knocked the SWAT bot down hard on its back, echoing a loud thud throughout the burnt-to-a-crisp cargo bay.

"Nice work," Ryan said after a short pause of silence. Cyrus and Trevor were shocked seeing Aleena perform such tasks.

"Just like last time," she said remembering her fight on the roof with Ryan a few weeks ago. Quickly, the four ran past the grounded SWAT bots and back outside of the building.

"Okay, guys, Robotnik knows you're here, it's not safe for you guys to be here anymore," Ryan told them.

"What?" Cyrus snapped, thinking he meant go away.

"Sonic and his siblings will help me inside from here on out, I want you three to take the back entrances and work your way up to the roof," Ryan explained to them. "I'll keep in touch with you to swing inside, covering the back doors or any other escape routes."

"Got it," Cyrus said with a sigh of relief. As scary as the mission is, he did not want this to end in failure. Neither of them wanted to feel like a liability to the team because of their capture. They only have under an hour left, and they most certainly want to finish this.

"Wait, I can't expose myself to my siblings," Aleena quickly told him, knowing that the triplets will be waiting. Speaking of which, their radios crackled in.

"Hey, Ryan, I'm waiting," Sonic spoke over the intercom radio earpieces.

"Are you guys holding at the control room door?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, and we looked under the door, only Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo are inside," Sonia said over the radio.

"What are your positions?" Ryan asked.

"We have the door bladed," Manic told him. So far, they did not give the duress codes, so the place must be safe.

"I'm on my way," Ryan said in the radio. He then turned his attention back to the three furries. "Hurry, time is of the essence. Let's go." Just as Ryan was about to run back inside with his XM8 in both hands, Aleena called out to him.

"Wait a minute, Ryan," Aleena called. Ryan stopped and turned to her. "There's one more thing I almost forgot. After we made out rescue, there will be a lockdown."

"I thought that system was disabled."

"There is still a manual override in the basement. Look for the only fuse box in the basement and just shoot it. That'll get rid of the lockdown's ability."

"Okay, Aleena, I'll see you inside."

Ryan turned on his heel and ran back in through the cargo bay. Aleena, Cyrus, and Trevor ran their way to the back emergency exits to get to the roof, which will be a long journey.

**10**

Robotnik looks at his monitors and notices that Ryan is heading inside again. Unfortunately, there was a blind spot where Aleena and the others ran through.

"So, that Green Beret is coming back inside, is he?" Robotnik said with a sneer. "Well, he won't be lucky this time."

"How so, sir?" Sleet asked.

"Well, we can manually lockdown the place from the basement secure line," Robotnik advised while getting out of his chair. Sleet understood. Even if Ryan does manage to get the Dimensional Matter Displacer program and the hard-copy disk out, they could keep him within the building and try to kill him.

"Ooh, good idea, Robotnik," Sleet replied. "Dingo and I will get to the fuse box and activate it." Upon hearing that, Dingo shuttered in fear, remembering getting beaten up on Earth, getting knocked out in the interrogation room, behind held at gunpoint in the streets, and being pinned to the wall a short time ago.

"I'm afraid of him," Dingo shuttered.

"Oh, grow up, Dingo," Sleet sneered, but he soon realized Dingo would only be a liability to the basement lockdown fuse box if they were to encounter Ryan again. "Fine, I'll take a SWAT bot with me."

Sleet turned and started exiting the control room. He fingered a SWAT bot to follow him, and it did. They exited the room and toward the elevators, which is the quickest way to the basement.

As soon as the elevator doors closed and headed down, Sonic, Sonia, and Manic popped out of well-hidden hiding spots within the hallway behind the furniture. They stayed in their positions as told by Ryan.

"Ryan," Sonic whispered in his radio. "Sleet and a SWAT bot are heading to the basement. Something about a manual lockdown."

"I'm heading there now," Ryan replied from the crackled radio turned low enough so that Robotnik and Dingo in the other room could not hear it. "I'll ambush them, and then I'll meet you guys up there."

"Good luck, Ryan," Sonic whispered in his radio before turning it off on the sending angles.

**11**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan has been in Camp Mackall for a few days, and his limits were pushed. Selection was easier than this. Ryan already noticed that Lieutenant Wire and Sergeant Rush have already quit, so now they are down to 12 recruits left; one officer, one warrant officer, all five roll-ins since the beginning of the Q-Course, and five of the original nine to pass Assessment and Selection all the way back to what feel like many years ago. With the exception of Ryan, the original class still remaining are Grimes, Nathanson, Davis, and Tanor.

Ryan held his face over the large wooden tub of water similar to what farmers use to feed their animals. He cupped his hands to catch some water and sucked it out of his hand bowl. He glanced over and saw a few recruits were cold, so they hugged each other to conserve body heat. Then he looked over and saw Lieutenant Falcon, the perfect leader if he ever met one, snatch a worm out of the dirty ground and stick it in his mouth. Ryan ate worms many times during S.E.R.E., but now finds it slight disgusting actually seeing it.

Ryan caught movement at the gate. Some of the S.E.R.E. instructors opened the bamboo door and faced Ryan with stern angry looks.

"Perreault, you're coming with me," one of the instructors told him. Ryan felt it was futile to resist, so he got up and followed the instructors out.

The two Sergeants wearing the tiger-striped uniforms gripped on both of Ryan's arms like police officers and led him to the main office building within the compound. Ryan was led inside the building for the first time, which looked like a run-down abandoned building, but saw armed soldiers everywhere he went. Soon, Ryan was led into a room at the end of the hallway.

The room Ryan was led to looked run-down. The only thing inside was a table and two chairs. Sitting behind one of the chairs was a random instructor wearing his tiger-striped uniform. What was worse was that there was no window in the room.

"Sit down, Perreault," the instructor said. Ryan quickly voluntarily sat down before the instructors go the chance to shove him in the seat. "Guards, leave us."

The two Sergeants that carried Ryan in the room left and closed the door behind them. Then the Sergeant behind the table looked at Ryan with a stern mean look in his eyes, the stare that could kill from a mile away. However, Ryan did not feel total fear because if the Sergeant were to drop and have a seizure, Ryan would stare at him and let him die. His luck, however, was not at the maximum today.

"I was told that one of the recruits took a huge bite out of Sergeant Steven's finger, do you know who that could have been?" the Sergeant asked.

Ryan said nothing. He stared back at the Sergeant. His goal was to make sure the instructor did not even know what his voice sounds like. The Sergeant glared at the pause but continued.

"Whoever that recruit was also kicked one of the dogs in the face. We can go easy on you if you rat out the one you knew who did it. What's it going to be?" the Sergeant asked.

Ryan said nothing.

"Come on, be smart about this. Your team doesn't care for you, they want you to get in trouble as well. Now, tell me, who hurt the Sergeant?"

Ryan said nothing.

"God damnit! You will talk!" the Sergeant yelled snapping out of his chair. "Guards!" Immediately, the two Sergeants ran in the room. "Take the garbage out and teach it some lessons."

"Yes, Sergeant," one of the men said.

The two Sergeants whipped a paper bag over Ryan's head, forced his wrists bound with a flexi-cuff, and they both forcefully grabbed Ryan out of the chair and ran him down the hall. They were going so fast that Ryan could not catch up with his legs. Ryan felt he was being dragged outside somewhere.

The S.E.R.E. instructors dragged Ryan to a junkyard near the makeshift POW camp. There, they threw Ryan in a ball within a small cage. Then they covered the top of the cage with a metal sheet and started banging it hard with on-site baseball bats. The loud ringing of the sheet metal created chaos and noise throughout Ryan's skull.

After several minutes, the two Sergeants grabbed Ryan's arms and dragged him off somewhere else. The paper bag was still over Ryan's head, so he had no idea where he was being taken to. The instructors stopped and made Ryan stand up in the middle of an empty road. All of a sudden, two other instructors sped their cars around Ryan in complete circles. In Ryan's head, he felt like he was in the middle of a highway and, if he moved, he would get hit by a car. He remained still hoping a car would not hit him. Luckily, the instructors at S.E.R.E. were required to be expert drivers. Many applicants who wanted to be S.E.R.E. instructors failed because their driving skills were not of the maximum.

After what felt like hours gone by, the cars stopped. Ryan panted out of fear but was lucky to still be alive. Soon, both of his arms were grabbed by the two Sergeants and taken away. After a while, he was thrown down to the ground where he felt his cuffs getting snipped off his wrists. Then the bag whipped off of his head and Ryan realized he was right in front of the cage where all of the recruits saw him pale from fear.

"Get back in there," one of the Sergeants shouted. One of them grabbed Ryan and angrily tossed him back in the bamboo cage with the other. He took one last look at the instructors and saw that they were leaving while laughing.

"Ryan, you okay?" a voice spoke above him.

Ryan, still shuttering, looked up and saw Davis kneeling over him. He soon saw the other recruits notice him and were worried about what he went through.

"Come on, let's get you some water," Davis said.

Davis cupped his hands in the tub of water and brought it to Ryan's face. One of the other recruits, Tanor, held Ryan in a sitting upright position as David carefully fed Ryan the water. Ryan felt relieved a bit. This was hard on Ryan, but it was also hard on everyone else too. It has only been a few days, but Ryan actually went through 58 weeks to prepare for this. If this S.E.R.E. course was one of the early first phases of training, he would not have been prepared or even strong enough to continue. Ryan knew he could pass this course. It was a shame when Wire and Rush quit, but now Ryan understood why, but that is not going to get in the way of his ultimate goal he worked so hard to get to.

As Davis was feeding the shivering Ryan water, Ryan remembered being in his living room with his mother the day he left for Airborne School. He was hoping he would be one of the 20 to pass this course. His biggest hurdle he wanted to get over at the time was Assessment and Selection, but now he has got one larger hurdle to pass over, and that hurdle was titled, 'Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape.'

_TO BE CONTINUED..._


	15. Escape and SERE III

**CHAPTER 15**

**Escape and S.E.R.E. III**

**1**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

A week and a half of grueling torturous pain passed. Ryan was lying on a stack of hay trying to keep comfortable and keep warm. He and the rest of the recruits were still within the large bamboo cage, each one feeling weak, sick, and in physical and mental pain. Then they heard the sound of a truck revving up its engines in the distance. The recruits woke up and immediately noticed there were only ten strong; two were missing. Questions ran through their heads. Then their questions were answered when they looked over and saw the two Weapons Sergeants, Grimes and Nathanson, walking to an awaiting truck wearing their ACU Digital combat BDU's and carrying their duffle bags.

"They left you guys behind," a voice said to them from the side of the cage. The ten remaining recruits looked over and saw one of the instructors staring at them with a victorious grin on his face. "They chose their dignity over your safety and loyalty. Who wants to quit next?"

The ten remaining recruits just stared at the instructor from their haystack beds. Ryan then recalled back to Selection when he was only one of nine to pass the course; the other eight being Davis, Grimes, Nathanson, Roselyn, Rush, Tanor, Thompson, and Willard. Thompson and Willard failed the MOS phase, Roselyn failed the Collective phase, and now Rush, Grimes, and Nathanson have quit S.E.R.E. Ryan, along with his buddy Davis and Tanor are the only three remaining from the original Selection course.

"Oh, you're next, Perreault," the instructor said. Ryan wondered what he meant by him being next. Soon, other instructors opened the bamboo gate and entered in. Ryan was too weak to resist when they threw the paper bag over his head again. They gripped his arms like police officers and carried him off to the large main building.

Along the way, Ryan was counting his steps and feeling different atmospheres such as close-in drafts which mean he is in a hallway. Ryan felt he was being taken to a room he has never been to before in this run-down building. The instructors stopped Ryan and they whipped the bag off of his head. Ryan caught an unexpected sight of the room he was in.

In the room looked nothing run-down. The place looked like a high school principle's office, with awards, framed diplomas, and plaques covering the walls. In the middle of the room is a rug with a black, green, and red symbol on it. The symbol was of a black dagger surrounded by a green boarder. Within the boarder were Chinese symbols. On top of the whole logo, in yellow letters, said 'SERE' flashing. In the middle of the office was a bright and shiny desk with the Native American sitting behind it. There was a computer and photographs of the Native American man that was in charge of SERE. On the desk was a name tab that said 'COL. JACK M. MORGAN' in bright white letters. Ryan looked at the photographs on the wall and saw Colonel Morgan wearing his greens uniform and Special Forces tabs, one of the photographs was of him shaking hands with then-President Clinton. In the photograph, however, Morgan had a silver oak-leaf cluster on his shoulders, meaning he was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time.

"Hello, take a seat," Morgan told Ryan in a calm tone. After hesitating a bit, Ryan slowly approached the comfortable chair stationed directly in front of the desk, which has dirt and hay on it meaning someone else, such as the recruits, recently sat in it. Once Ryan sat down, Morgan looked up at the instructors that brought him in. "Guards, leave us."

The two instructors turned and left the room, closing the door behind them. Morgan then placed his elbows on his desk with his fingers interlaced. He sighed and looked at Ryan like a school principal trying to decide what to do with a troubled student in a peaceful manor.

"Look, I understand this course is getting pretty hard on you and I'm going to be humane enough to let the pain stop," Morgan said to Ryan calmly. "It's hard to see these students suffer through a training course for a situation that would most likely never happen. So, I'm willing to offer you a chance to put it all to a stop. All you got to do is sign this sheet saying that you quit, and then you'll be returned back to your home unit."

Morgan grabbed a clipboard with a few sheet clipped to it and a pen chained to the hole of the clip. He held it out to Ryan to grab on to.

"Just sign your name on the line, last name, comma, first name and middle initial period," Morgan explained to Ryan.

Ryan glared at the sheet and read most of the paragraphs on it. It was everything Morgan said it was. He can leave S.E.R.E. and go back home. This course was extremely harsh on Ryan. They have physically tortured him with batons and tasers, scared him shitless by holding his head underwater for several seconds only to get beaten up later on, and they have even burned the American flag in front of him. The worst part was the condition he was living in; sleeping outside on hay and dirt in a bamboo cage and even left outside in the rain and cold.

Sudden, Ryan realized something. The chair he was sitting in had dirt on it and he remembered that Grimes and Nathanson just quit out of the blue. This was probably why they left; they were tricked into signing this. They were tricked into signing their goals away, their goal being a Special Forces Operator, a Green Beret. Being a Green Beret is Ryan's ultimate goal and he knew that if he signed this sheet he is signing away his goal. Instead, Ryan tossed the clipboard angrily back on the desk, throwing Morgan off guard.

"Fuck you, sir, I'm never going to sign that," Ryan sneered at Morgan. That was when Morgan snapped from calm mode to anger mode.

"What are you? Stupid?" Morgan snapped. Ryan, however, showed no signs of being effected by the snap. "Grimes and Nathanson were smart because they signed this!"

"No they weren't, they lost their will," Ryan told him. "If I had to choose between my dignity and my team, I choose my team."

"What kind of a moron are you?"

"A loyal fucking moron!"

"Get out! Guards!" Morgan shouted, Ryan showing no effects of getting yelled at. The two instructors snapped the door open and entered in the office. "Get this uncooperative shit out of my office!"

Without responding, the S.E.R.E. instructor threw the bag over Ryan's head and forced him out of the room. Ryan was being carried back to the bamboo cage where his awaiting recruits were. The bag was snapped off of his head and he was forcefully kicked back in the cage.

"What happened?" Davis asked as the instructors closed and locked the cage hatch and left.

"I know why Grimes and Nathanson quit," Ryan told them. The other recruits gathered around him like kids listening to a story. "The commander asked them to quit and they were gullible enough to accept it." They gasped.

"But we still got each other," Falcon addressed to them. All eyes fell on Lieutenant Falcon. "We're the only ones remaining and we just got to work hard together and we can get through this. We were able to spend over a week in this torture camp, and that was where I saw strength amongst us. Let's see more of that strength the rest of the way. We're the only ones left, so let's show them that we can handle this. Hoo-ah?"

"Hoo-ah!" the recruits replied. Ryan felt better now, knowing he has got a great group of buddies on his side. They can get through this. They will get through this; they just got to know it.

**2**

_PRESENT DAY_

Sleet ran down into the basement with the SWAT Bot on the way to manually lockdown the building, unaware of Ryan approaching the same objective.

"Listen up, metal-head, I want you to use your ignitions to start the building for lockdown," Sleet told the SWAT Bot.

"Affirmative," the bot said.

Sleet and the bot opened the basement door, leading to a basement with a staircase leading down to a cement-floor room with several light bulb lights dangling off the ceiling and several storage shelves. The two walked further in until they can see the fuse panel in the wall.

"With that, the boy will be trapped in here like a pea in a tin can. We only have a few more minutes until the DMD is charged and he'll be stuck here forever!" Sleet said to himself evilly.

All of a sudden, a gunshot rang out throughout the large basement. It was not a laser pulse fire, it was a bullet. Sleet spun on his heel and saw the SWAT bot behind him dropped to the ground with a large hole in its chest and oil dripping out of it.

"Hey, dickhead!" a familiar voice called.

Sleet slowly turned his head around and there he was, Ryan Michael Perreault, walking out of the shadows. In Ryan's arms is his XM8, but Sleet noticed the bolt right above the chamber is pulled all the way back, meaning that the bullet he fired on the SWAT bot was the last in the magazine. Ryan was aware of that, too.

Quickly, Sleet reached for his sidearm, which was the same gun he used to stun Ryan back on Earth. Before Sleet was able to aim it at Ryan, Ryan heaved his empty XM8 at Sleet's arm, and he never touched it again. The heavy rifles' hit cause Sleet to drop his stun gun. Immediately, Ryan dove forward to Sleet with his hands stretched out to his neck. The two engaged in a close-quarters fight with throwing punches only for them to be blocked.

"You stunned me in the street on Earth. Unfair," Ryan sneered in Sleet's face.

"Then let's make it fair," Sleet said as he threw Ryan off of him. With Ryan a few feet away, Sleet grabbed for his secondary weapon, which was a six-inch dagger. As soon as Ryan saw it, he whipped out his H&K 50 knife and the two stared at each other with look of hatred and death in their eyes.

The two lunged at each other and engaged in a knife fight. Ryan kept on blocking Sleet's blows with his knife and vice versa. They two kept moving through the basement in karate positions with their daggers, knocking over shelves and making a mess of the place.

"You're good," Ryan said.

"I know. I'm a bounty hunter after all," Sleet said.

The two continued to fight. Ryan kicked Sleet's legs causing Sleet to fall on his back. He quickly moved away as Ryan was so close to stabbing him. The two continued to knife fight when the two of them lost both of their knives at the same time. Quickly, Sleet kicked Ryan away from him and ran to the stairs.

Sleet then ran for the door. Ryan got up and followed him after picked up his knife. He was too late, Sleet closed the door and he could hear Sleet locking it.

"We planned on robotosizing you, but you were such a trouble maker! Now we plan on killing you. We're going to get someone else instead. Happy gassy," Sleet said as he turned a knob in the wall right next to the door.

Ryan sniffed the air and noticed that gas was pouring into the room.

"Oh man!" Ryan said, knowing he was about to be suffocated by the gas.

Ryan had to get out of the room and quick. He tried to open the door, but the knob would not budge. Instead of the front door, he had to find some other way of escape like a window. To his surprise, he saw a dumbwaiter, but he was more surprised to see a phone next to it, which looked like a payphone. Ryan ran to the phone and pried open the sides with his knife.

The room filled with gas quickly.

Ryan took off his black vest, reached in its pockets, and pulled out a few small C4 explosives. He attached them to the wires of the phone. Last, he took out a pen from his bag and looked at the phone number sticker on the phone box. He wrote the number on his palm:

'485-2546'

Ryan left his vest with the explosives. All he has left is just his black T-shirt, camouflage pants, tan boots, pistol holster, knife holster, and his olive-drab bag over his shoulder; the exact same attire he wore when being taken to Mobius. Quickly, Ryan checked his gun which was down to his last magazine. He ejected the magazine out to see how many bullets he has left since he came to Mobius.

"Two bullets left?" he yelled to himself.

Ryan loaded it back in his gun and strapped the gun back in its holder. He ran to the elevator and tried to pry the doors open with his fingers after he already holstered his knife back.

The gas is slowly weakening him and filling up extremely fast. Finally, with all his muscles, he opened the doors and noticed no dumbwaiter. He looked up and saw the shaft. He grabbed onto the ropes and dangled there inside the shaft. The Green Beret began climbing up the ropes.

The gas filled the entire huge basement. Just when it reached lethal level, Ryan made it out. He was completely unaware that he left his radio back on his vest, but by mental geography and the height of the shaft, this would put him right into the hallway where Sonic, Sonia, and Manic are waiting.

**3**

As Ryan was climbing up the ropes, Sleet entered back in the large control room, again not seeing the hidden triplet hedgehogs. Robotnik turned in his chair and saw Sleet entering.

"Why are you smiling? You said that you wanted the place locked down, but it's not," Robotnik asked.

"It's not locked down, sir. But you see, the guy is locked in the basement and I'm filling it up with gas. He'll suffocate anytime, soon," Sleet said smirking. Robotnik also smirked. He always wanted the Green Beret robotosized, but changed his mind when he knew that the human shield would prevent him from leaving. Robotnik kept it up anyway so that the next human they catch won't be able to get back home in case he or she does resist like Ryan did.

"That is good news. Good riddance to the Green Beret. Oh well, we'll try to robotsize another one," Robotnik said.

Dingo just stood there looking confused.

"Anyway, no matter what's going to happen," Sleet began to say as he tapped one of the small compartments with his palm, "we'll keep the original DMD safe."

**4**

Ryan made it to the top floor. He swung himself toward the closed dumbwaiter doors and busted them open. He swung himself in on the floor and pointed his gun around the place. It was the hallway leading right to Robotnik's control room and it was empty.

"Ryan?" Manic whispered.

Ryan looked around the hallway again. Soon, out of various perfectly-hidden spots, the triplet hedgehogs emerged.

"Hi, guys," Ryan whispered back as he holstered his sidearm.

"I just heard Sleet say he locked you in the basement," Sonic said.

"I found this dumbwaiter," Ryan told them. "Enough chat, I lost my rifle and I only got two rounds left. How many are in the control room?"

"Twelve SWAT bots, Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo," Sonia told him. "Sleet mentioned that the DMD disk is in the main console compartment three compartments over from the right."

"Outstanding, get ready to burst in, flash bang and clear," Ryan ordered.

The four bladed the door ready to strike. A blade is when operators stand by the walls of a door ready to make entry. It is dangerous to stand directly in front of a doorway when an entry is being ordered. Then the command will be called, the operators will charge in, down their walls, and clear the room the second the flash bang goes off. It must be done quickly.

"Ready when you are, Ry-guy," Manic said in his surfer-lingo with the flash bang grenade in his hand.

"Before we go, I need to borrow your radio," Ryan told him. Manic handed Ryan his handheld radio and spoke in it. "Aleena, Cyrus, Trevor, you guys ready?"

"Ready when you are, we're about to swing in the windows," Aleena's voice crackled over the radio. Immediately, the hedgehog snapped their heads to the radio.

"Aleena, your children will be coming in as well from the southwest door, I suggest you stay outside and fire from the window, then repel away," Ryan told her.

"Good idea," Aleena spoke over the radio.

"Okay, guys, get ready to go in on my signal," Ryan told them all.

"What's your signal?" Cyrus said over the radio.

"You'll know it when it happens," Ryan replied. He handed the radio back to Manic. "Do you guys have a phone on you like a cell phone or something?"

Sonia replied by taking her medallion off of her neck and held it out to Ryan. Ryan, however, refused to accept it. He then looked at his left palm with the written number on it.

"Sonia, I want you to dial in 485-2546," Ryan told her. Sonia swung the medallion around her neck and started tapping her thumb on the small numbers on it. Ryan remembered in one episode of the show where Sonic and Sonia talked to each other over their medallions.

**5**

In the basement, the phone rang. The wires from the phone sparked through the wires to the C4 charges. Unlike in the movies, C4 can only blow up by an electrical charge, not by bullets. If a block of C4 were to be shot by a gun, nothing would happen.

KABOOM!!!

The whole basement blew up tilting the building. Since the basement was full of gas, the fire built up through the gas pipes, causing most of the building to explode but stay stable.

**6**

Aleena, Cyrus, and Trevor nearly lost their balances as the whole building shook.

"Oh my god! This place almost blew up!" she yelled. She then realized that the explosion was the signal Ryan was talking about. Cyrus and Trevor immediately understood the signal as well.

**7**

Alarms rang as fire was being sent through the gas pipes.

"This whole building almost blew up!" Robotnik yelled as he got up out of his chair and glared at Sleet. "I thought you said you killed the boy!"

"I did! I must've been a spark in the basement or something," Sleet replied.

"That was no spark, it must be that Green Beret," Robotnik scolded.

Before the three of them or the SWAT bots inside knew what was going on, they heard the only door in the room open up from behind them. They snapped their heads and saw the door a crack open. Immediately, a peach arm with a white gloved hand with a spiked bracelet tossed in the flash bang grenade. Almost on that second, the flash bang blew up, impairing Robotnik's, Sleet's, and Dingo's visions to just a white flash and decreased their hearing to a low high-pitched hum.

The three bad guys and the SWAT bots were blinded by the flash bang grenade. Even though their hearing was blocked by the humming, they heard a muffled echo of automatic gunfire and metal clanking. Fear grew between the three bounty hunters as they felt high wind of crossfire, knowing they are unable to do anything to stop it.

Soon, their visions came back to them. The white flash slowly faded away to a still-frame image of what they last saw before the flash bang went off. Soon afterward, their hearing started coming back and the still-image slowly faded to their true vision.

The sight they saw ahead of them was a scary image. All twelve SWAT bots within the room have been destroyed, spilling oil everywhere. The three looked behind them and saw Cyrus and Trevor standing at the broken windows with their guns pointed at them. Aleena herself remained outside with both feet planted on the two sides of the broken window, dangling from the repel rope. In her hands is the laser gun she has always been using.

"Doctor Ivo Julian Robotnik!" a voice yelled out, which was no doubt Ryan's.

Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo caught a scarier sight when they looked at the door ahead of them. Standing before them are the three hedgehogs and Ryan Perreault himself. Ryan held his H&K USP sidearm at the three. There was a pause until Ryan approached them with his gun raised.

"All three of you, hands up! Turn around and slowly get on your knees," Ryan sneered at them. The three did as they were told. "Hand behind your back, interlace your fingers, and cross you ankles." Again, they did as they were told, kneeling side-by-side with their backs to Ryan.

Ryan arched around them keeping his gun pointed at them. Ryan stopped so he could see their faces in order to detect lies.

"Why do you want to robotosize me?" Ryan asked angrily.

"I wanted to try something new. I wanted my first human to be robotosized," Robotnik said.

"Out of a billion people on Earth, you chose me? Why? You saw my profile and you knew I was army," Ryan asked.

"Yeah," Robotnik said.

"As we can see, we chose the wrong one," Dingo said.

There was a pause. Ryan smiled.

"Robotnik, your computers are the most advanced in hacking, most of which I've never seen before," Ryan explained. "My Special Forces profile was hidden deep, but not too far buried. Plus, you were going to torture me, but you never tortured anyone before, not even Sonic. You had it all planned, and I saw how nervous you were when you were called away when I was in the interrogation room."

"What's your point?" Robotnik asked.

"Robotnik, don't lie to me. I was able to read your face in the interrogation room," Ryan told him. He then said something that socked everyone in the room. "You knew all along I was a Green Beret, didn't you?"

There was a pause amongst the room. The Sonic Underground did not know until Ryan told them. Sleet and Dingo was sure Robotnik had no idea what Ryan was either due to his reactions when they told him. Robotnik was in shock when Sleet told him that he was a Green Beret, at leased that was what Sleet and Dingo saw. The two bounty hunters looked over and saw a shocking sight.

Right after Ryan asked if Robotnik knew Ryan was a Special Forces Operator, Robotnik replied by slowly nodding. No wonder Robotnik sent Sleet and Dingo with fifteen SWAT bots to Earth to capture him after explaining that the two of them alone could catch him, but Robotnik persisted.

"So, why did you choose me?" Ryan asked.

"Because I didn't think a Green Beret would have been strong enough to escape," Robotnik told him. "I altered the robotosizer so that it would remove your free will but keep your skills. Imagine a Green Beret standing by my side as I crush the resistance."

"Did you have other options?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, sure, but we wanted someone who knew about this world," Robotnik told him. "Somehow, I recently found out myself that this is a television show broadcasting on the planet Earth, so we went to Earth and grab one of you guys. It turns out there was only one operator on my list who was a hard-core fan of this show. That way, you would be scared knowing what is going to happen to you."

"But when I escaped, your confidence dropped?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, not entirely," Robotnik sneered back. "I was going to let you go, and then I was going to get someone else on my list. This next guy was in the Polish Land Forces, a GROM operative, he would have been a good second choice, so I figured I could kill you and get the GROM operative."

"Nice digs, Robotnik. You should have done better than a gassed up room to kill me. Give up. You're bots are gone. You three are the only ones left, and I have only two bullets in this gun, question is, who will get it?" Ryan asked.

"Any one of these two! But you're still not getting what you need," Robotnik said pointing at Sleet and Dingo.

Ryan breathed heavily. Then he shifted his eyes to the computer that has a 98 copy of the Dimensional Matter Displacer being charged and the human shield activating.

"Whoa, man, that's good thinking. Even if I get the original disk, you guys will still have a human shield to keep me out, so I'll still lose, eh?" Ryan asked. Robotnik tried not to act like he knew anything about this.

"Whatever could you be talking about? How would you know that's the human shield?" Robotnik asked, trying to trick Ryan. However, Ryan saw a wrinkle form on Robotnik's nose quickly, indicating that he was lying, but Ryan thought of something else so Robotnik would not know that Ryan knew he was lying.

"Easy," Ryan began to say. He pointed his gun at Dingo. "I made Dingo over there squeal to me like a little piggy."

"Dingo, you moron!" Sleet yelled.

Dingo blushed and said, "Sorry."

"But it doesn't matter. The human shield wont work and the original backup disk is in that compartment, correct?" Ryan asked pointing his gun at the third compartment from the right where Sleet placed it.

"Correction, how do you know I didn't put it someplace else?" Sleet asked, but Ryan saw the wrinkles form and his pupils snapping.

In response, Ryan angrily ran over to the compartment and opened it up. He reached in and snagged out the disk with the label 'DMD' on it. The disk looked like a small zip-drive disk but more complicated for the computers on Earth. Ryan grinned as he placed the disk back in his pocket. Slowly, he walked behind the three enemies so that their backs are to Ryan. Ryan slowly touched the tip of his USP sidearm on the backs of their heads individually.

"Eenie," Ryan said as he pointed the gun at Dingo. Dingo cringed. "Meenie," Ryan said as he pointed the gun at Robotnik. Robotnik shook in fear. "Miney..." Ryan said as he pointed the gun at Sleet. Sleet cringed thinking he was going to die.

Ryan stood there, statue-still, pointing the gun with two bullets directly behind the dictator's heads. The six furries in the room stared with fear wondering what Ryan is going to do.

Ryan eyes shifted to the computer. The computer shown 99 of the Dimensional Matter Displacer's human-shield files almost completed. All three wait to see who gets the bullet. Then another computer blinked saying that the portal is officially opened in sector F-G.

"Moe!" Ryan yelled as he swung the gun and shot the computer that was in the middle of making the human shield. That same computer stored all of the Dimensional Matter Displacer files on it and all the information is lost and destroyed! The other computer, however, shown that the portal was still open but the human shield program has an error and was shut down.

"No!" Robotnik yelled. Ryan, however, chuckled his head off.

"That's a show-stopper for you," Ryan told them laughing. He holstered his gun and unslung his olive drab bag, placing it on the ground. He then pulled out three sets of metallic cartoon handcuffs from his bag. "I'm going to place the three of you under arrest."

Ryan walked behind Dingo who was kneeling at the far right of the bunch. He grabbed his arms and forced them behind his back and clicked the handcuffs in place. Ryan then did the same Robotnik, forcing his hands behind and cuffed him from behind. Sleet, however, felt like he had to get brave again. He was at the risk of getting shot at by the hedgehogs, but it was a risk worth taking.

Just as Ryan was about to handcuff Sleet, Sleet quickly spun around and slapped Ryan across the face. He then quickly pounced on Ryan, trying to fight him, and also trying not to give anyone a clear shot of himself.

Sleet laid on top of Ryan, but Ryan quickly kicked him off. Sleet got up on a standing position. Ryan kicked his legs up in an arch to stand back up and pulled out his H&K 50 knife. Ryan lunged the knife upward to Sleet, but Sleet used his arms to cross block the knife. He then twisted Ryan's arm and forced him to the ground. Sleet ripped the knife out of Ryan's hand. Just as Sleet was about to use it on Ryan, Ryan used his legs to grip around Sleet's neck and forced him to the ground.

Once sleet was on the ground, Ryan kicked him away and quickly stood back up. Sleet rolled himself back to a standing position with Ryan's knife in hand. Sleet flipped the knife in his hand with his fingers so that it points from his pinky down. The bounty hunter then charged the knife downward on the Green Beret. Ryan cross blocked the knife, hooked his elbow around Sleet's arm, and used his body to force Sleet to the ground. Ryan took the knife out of Sleet's hand. Quickly, Sleet was able to butt his head back in Ryan's face, knocking him off.

Sleet quickly stood back up and faced Ryan after he rubbed his nose. This time, Ryan held the knife upward and charged at Sleet from the side. Sleet quickly grabbed Ryan's arm kneed him in the crotch. Ryan kept his grip on the knife as Sleet tried to take it out of his hand. Ryan then quickly head butted Sleet and the two of them dropped the knife. Once Ryan saw the knife was dropped, he kicked it away knowing he could not risk Sleet grabbing it again.

Ryan and Sleet held onto each other for a while. Ryan quickly spun around and flipped Sleet over his shoulder. Sleet laid hard on the ground on his back, but he whipped his boot back and kicked Ryan in the chest, throwing him back a bit. Sleet then kicked his legs up in an arch and stood upright again.

Ryan and Sleet stared at each other again. Sleet whipped out his laser pistol and brought it up to Ryan with one hand. Just as Sleet pointed the gun directly at Ryan's chest, Ryan acted first. Ryan grabbed Sleet's wrist and gun with his hands and forced the gun to point upward. He twisted Sleet's arm so that he fell over on his back. Just before Ryan got the chance to snag the gun out of Sleet's hand, Sleet threw an unexpected punch to Ryan's jaw. Ryan fell on the ground with his arms still locked around Sleet's arm.

Sleet rolled on top of Ryan, but Ryan quickly yanked the gun out of Sleet's hand. Unfortunately, Ryan did not have a grip on the gun and it flung out of his hand and across the floor. Sleet sat on Ryan's abdomen and tried to punch him. Ryan never got punched; he grabbed both of Sleet's wrists and used his left leg to hook Sleet's right leg. He then used the balance to throw Sleet off of him to the right.

Ryan then sat on top of Sleet and started to assault him with Sleet's legs on the outside of Ryan. Quickly, Sleet used his left knee to push Ryan off of him. Sleet gripped Ryan's thumb to cause pain through his body and he kicked Ryan over to the left. Sleet laid on top of Ryan, but Ryan was able to twist his wrist and slip out of Sleet's grip.

Ryan then used his last attack on Sleet. Sleet gripped both of his hands on Ryan's neck. Ryan grabbed Sleet's right wrist with his right hand and used his left arm to push Sleet over to the right. Ryan kept a grip on Sleet's wrist and twisted it, causing excruciating pain. He transferred his right hand with his left hand to grip Sleet's right wrist. Sleet's left arm was punned underneath him once Ryan used a leg-lock to secure it in place. Sleet now laid helpless on the ground and Ryan had his right hand still free. Ryan was about to finally kill Sleet.

Ryan reached behind him and whipped out his Heckler and Koch USP gun and pointed it directly at Sleet's face, but suddenly had a sense of conscience. There was only one bullet left and he was going to use it to kill the first cartoon character he ever met. All of a sudden, Ryan looked at Sleet's eyes and saw that they were yellow, just like the wolves back on Earth. Suddenly, he looked in the wolf bounty-hunter's eyes and saw the wolf he met back in the beginning of his S.E.R.E. training. Before Ryan joined the army, he was a strong believer in stopping wolf-hunting all over the world. He was sick of the aerial gunning in Alaska, the elimination of protection in the Northern Rockies, and the hunting in the southwest of America. He has donated a lot of money and wrote a ton of letters trying to stop the hunting of wolves in the world. That was one of the reasons he signed up for the Defenders of Wildlife unit called Save Wolves. Before the army, his true enemies were the hunters and the political figures trying to support getting rid of wolves. It still remains the same, his most hated enemy are wolf hunters and Ryan was just about to perform a task that was against everything he has worked so hard for. Ryan was just about to become his worst enemy.

Sleet laid there with the gun pointed to his face and saw Ryan's face fade. The look on his face shown sadness, not that he was about to cry but about to approach that stage. Sleet was confused, especially when he saw Ryan slowly lower his gun away from Sleet's face. After a pause and everyone staring at the two, Ryan spoke up but in a whisper that he himself could here.

"I can't do it," Ryan whispered to himself. Not only was Sleet a wolf, but he was also the very first 'Sonic Underground' character he met. If it was not for Sleet, Ryan would have not been in this world in the first place.

"What?" Sleet asked in confusion.

"I can't do it," Ryan said a little louder. "I can't kill a wolf. Not now, not ever." Everyone was confused as Ryan slowly slid his gun back in its holster. He then forced Sleet on his front and pinned his arms together. "Can someone hand me the handcuffs I dropped?"

Manic responded first. He grabbed the cuffs off the floor where Ryan dropped them and ran to Ryan. Ryan slid the handcuffs on Sleet's wrists, securing him in place. Ryan then gently forced Sleet to his feet.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Sleet asked in confusion with a tint of relief.

"I can kill humans with no remorse, but I can't kill an animal," Ryan replied back. It was true; Ryan could never bring himself to kill an animal. Bugs and spiders he has killed hundreds of times, and killing humans was something Ryan was used to, but never in his life has he killed an animal.

Sonic, Sonia, and Manic looked over and saw Queen Aleena dangling outside of the window. This time, Aleena shown no signs of trying to escape from her children. Instead, she holstered her laser gun and waved at them.

"Mom?" Sonic asked as he approached her. He was soon followed by Sonia and Manic. Aleena then whipped back her shawl showing her whole head with a bright smile on her face.

"I'm so proud of the three of you," Aleena said to them. This was the first time she spoke to them without using a hologram like she always did. "Not only were you able to become more than you thought, you helped a non-Mobian in the face of danger. It's your heart and courageous efforts that will one day soon bring the end of Robotnik's total tyranny. We'll be reunited soon. I love you."

Aleena then reached forward and rubbed her hand on each of her children's faces. Tears soaked in the triplet's eyes. Soon, Aleena leaned back and jumped off the window. Her jump caused her to slide all the way down the building and soon out of sight. The hedgehogs looked over and saw Aleena as she disappeared in the darkness below.

Ryan led the rest out as they took Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo prisoner. The three hedgehogs, Cyrus, and Trevor forced a protective circle around Ryan as they forced the cuffed Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo out the building. Ryan held the Dimensional Matter Displacer disk in his pocket. As the triplets were talking to Aleena, he grabbed his bag and knife and placed his USP with one bullet in his holster.

Robotnik knew that there was no chance of victory anymore. All of the files that it took to make the Dimensional Matter Displacer is destroyed and the human shield program is destroyed as well. The only way to revive it is to use the disk which is secured in Ryan's pocket, and even that is inevitable to get to. It was over.

**8**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan munched on the bread given to him by the S.E.R.E. instructors. The rest of the ten recruits around him sat around cold within the bamboo make-shift prison they were in. Each of them felt like they had enough of what it feels like to be a prisoner of war. For the past couple weeks, they have been hosed, tortured both physically and mentally, beaten on, scared out of their daylights, and were forced to eat nothing but bread and water. During that time, they were sleeping outside in the bitter cold nights, the wet stormy rains, and the scorching high sun heat. It was no surprise why Wire, Grimes, Nathanson, and Rush quit this program.

Suddenly, the ten worn-out recruits looked up and saw ten S.E.R.E. instructors approaching the makeshift cage, each with a paper bag. They opened it and stared coldly at the recruits laying in the dirt.

"All of you, get up!" one of the instructors shouted.

Some of the recruits did so without help, but most of them struggled to get back up. The ones struggling were forced up aggressively by the instructors. Again, paper bags were slipped on each of the recruits' heads. This was not the first time multiple recruits would be taken away at the same time, but this was the first time where all of them were taken away together.

Ryan was confused and scared. It was bad when he was being taken away alone and it was worse when they forced other recruits together. He remembered a few days ago where he and Davis were taken away and forced to ask to quit. The instructors asked Davis to quit but refused, so they tortured Ryan and made Davis look at it. After a while, the roles were switched, where they asked Ryan to quit and they made him watch David get tortured. Eventually, neither of them broke and were forced back to the cage. Bringing all ten recruits together must be ten times as scary.

"Keep them in line over there," a voice called out. It was obviously Morgan's voice. Ryan felt the instructors force them to stand side by side next to each other in front of something. "Okay, remove the bags."

Ryan felt the bag being removed from his head. Fear and adrenalin took over his body wondering what is it the recruits were forced to see. In seconds, the moment of truth would be revealed.

The bags were off, and they were all shocked as to what they saw, it was the last thing any one of them were expecting. Standing in front of them were familiar faces. They were Sergeant Jackson, the Communications Sergeant Instructor, Sergeant Storm, the Medical Sergeant Instructor, Sergeant Mace, the Engineering Sergeant Instructor, and, familiar to Ryan, Sergeant Maxwell, the Weapons Sergeant Instructor. With these instructors is none other than Colonel Samuel Moss.

"Gentlemen, congratulations," Moss said to them with a smile on his face. "You ten have passed S.E.R.E. Colonel Morgan, raise the flag."

Immediately, the ten recruits looked at the flagpole and noticed a flag was being pulled up. It was not the foreign flag from earlier; it was the true Old Glory itself, the American flag. Immediately, all the recruits stood at attention and saluted it.

Ryan felt sadness overcome him. He could tell the other nine felt it too. He has finished week 60 of his training. He recalled getting off the bus to Fort Benning and remembered the address the Commander gave to introduce Airborne training. A few weeks later, he met Staff Sergeant Robert Davis on the bus to Fort Bragg. Ryan himself could not believe that it was all over. The time went by and has, not only graduated S.E.R.E., but he has graduated the whole Special Forces training.

**9**

A couple days later, Ryan was resting in a five-star hotel room back in the heart of the beautiful North Carolina landscapes. He rested himself on the bed wearing a pair of Army shorts and a wife beater which said 'U.S. ARMY' printed on the front. Most of the scars he obtained during his training were healed. He sat alone on the bed reading a hardcover novel titled _Clear and Present Danger_ written by one of his favorite authors, Tom Clancy.

As soon as he got to the part where Jack Ryan was about to break into John Ritter's safe, Ryan heard a knock at the door. He placed the book down on the bed downward with the pages opened. Ryan approached the door and looked through the peephole. Behind the door was a man wearing a military dry cleaners uniform and in his hand was a series of black plastic-covered coat hangers. Ryan opened the door slightly.

"Hello," Ryan said all smiles, knowing what it was.

"What's the name you went under?" the man with the coat hangers said.

"Perreault." The man with the coat hangers looked at each tag quickly. He soon found the one with Ryan's name on it and handed it to him.

"We got your uniform altered just like you said."

"Thank you," Ryan said to him. The man handed Ryan the coat hanger with the clothes underneath covered in black plastic. Ryan then reached on the table beside the door and grabbed a small wad of cash. He handed the cash to the man and waved.

"Have a nice day," the man said just before Ryan closed the door.

Ryan walked over to the closet in full awe of his brand new uniform. He placed the hook on the large television stand and carefully slid the plastic off of it. Underneath was what he expected, it was his United States Army's class alpha greens uniform. There were a few new alterations added to it since he last saw it. Just above his small stack of ribbons right over the left breast were jump wings he got from Fort Benning. Then Ryan turned his attention to the sleeves and immediately saw the patch he worked so hard to get. The patch was a large blue arrowhead with a yellow sword down the middle and three lightning bolts across it. Directly above that patch were two tabs. The bottom tab was black with yellow letters, clearly printed 'AIRBORNE' on the tab. Just above that tab was a blue tab with yellow letters that said 'SPECIAL FORCES' which is what Ryan worked hard to get to.

"Oh, man, I just can't believe this," Ryan said to himself, nearly crying.

All along his uniform on its collars and epilates are the Special Forces crests, which was the banner with the motto, two crossing arrows, and a dagger up the center. He ran his fingers along the Special Forces patches, knowing that very few men have earned themselves to wear such a patch. People in the movies wear them all the time, but Ryan actually earned it truly.

Ryan stood there staring at his altered uniform, clearly displaying 'Special Forces' all over it. He did not know if he wanted to laugh or cry.

**10**

_PRESENT DAY_

The Sonic Underground van drove through the forest toward sector F-G where the computer said the portal was. Soon, they were led to bright lights in the middle of an empty field in the forest. The van stopped and stepping came Sonic, Sonia, and Manic, neither of them wearing their vests or carrying their guns.

"Okay, guys, it's clear," Sonia called back waving her arm.

Soon enough, the Scorpion vehicle drove through the forest as well. At the controls is Cyrus. Inside is Trevor and Ryan. Handcuffed inside are Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo. Sleet and Dingo sat cuffed in separate chairs and Robotnik had one wrist bound to one of the pipes and the other hand was free.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Queen Aleena sat in a tree branch overlooking everyone. This time, she did not wear her black dress nor had any weapons on her. She just sat there watching everyone act.

Cyrus stopped the vehicle and opened the doors. Trevor stepped out first, not wearing his vest or guns. Cyrus followed and soon he was followed by Ryan. Ryan, however, stood at the edge of the Scorpion craft and glared at the three bad guys. Then, out of the blue, Ryan reached on one of his pockets and pulled out a handcuff key, which was the same one he stole from Dingo since the beginning. He tossed the key to Robotnik who, instinctively, caught it with his free right hand.

"What?" Robotnik asked in confusion with the handcuff key in his hand.

"Go away. Get out, and don't come back," Ryan snarled as he slammed the door shut.

Ryan stood back and, within time, heard the Scorpion craft activate and start speeding away, kicking up dust in the air. Everyone, except Aleena, stared at Ryan in confusion. Ryan never saw the three of them again.

"Dude, we caught Robotnik, why did you let him go?" Manic asked.

"Because I would have violated the prophecy that way," Ryan said without taking his eyes off of where the Scorpion left to. "It's not time yet. Things could go wrong if the prophecy came true too early. Even Aleena would agree with me if she were here."

Ryan then shifted his eyes over to Aleena's position in the branches. Aleena figured a Green Beret would find her with great ease. She responded to Ryan by smiling and nodding. It was true; it was too early for the prophecy to come true yet.

The five furries in the area and Ryan are at the open portal to take Ryan back to Earth. It looked exactly like the kind Ryan saw on Earth; blue and white spirals circling around a point giving off bright lights. Ryan stared at it for a while.

"Well, go on. Before your dinner gets cold," Sonic said.

"As much as I would like to head home, I have always been a fan of you guys. I loved your TV show Sonic Underground and all. I never realized this is the kind of thing a freedom fighter does on Mobius," Ryan said turning his attention to the furries.

"I got to admit, dude. Your style of fighting is totally different than ours," Manic said.

"Not really, I made you guys the way I am as well," Ryan said.

"Yeah," Sonia said.

"But, hey, life in the forces is tough," Ryan said.

"True," Sonic said.

"Speaking of which," Trevor said. He held out Ryan's 'Endurance Techniques' handbook, the same ones he read back in Cyrus' laboratory. "You forgot these."

Ryan waved them off.

"Keep them. I have others of those books at home. You may want to use them for future things. In case Robotnik tries to attack or something," Ryan said smirking. The triplets got what Ryan was thinking.

"Thanks again for making us Green Berets, Ryan," Sonic said.

"I'm really going to miss you guys," Ryan sighed as a tear grew in his eye.

"Hey, we'll miss ya too," Manic said.

"Stay cool," Sonic said.

"So, for the last time, Sonic, I've always loved your speed and fast reflexes, Sonia, I've always loved your strategies, and Manic I've always loved your lingo and thieving skills," he shed another tear again, "I'll miss all three of you."

"We'll miss you too," Sonia said sadly.

Ryan got down on one knee and hugged Sonic, who hugged back. He then moved to Sonia and hugged her sadly too. Sonia hugs back sadly, too. He released and sadly hugged Cyrus.

"I met your father, Cyrus," Ryan whispered.

"You did? How is he?" Cyrus asked in the hug.

"He's okay. I didn't hurt him, don't worry," Ryan replied.

Ryan released Cyrus and hugged Trevor. After a brief few seconds, Ryan turn to Manic.

"Now Manic, don't swipe anything from me, especially this disk," Ryan told him.

"I promise," Manic said. His eyes did not flinch and wrinkles did not form on his nose, so he was telling the truth. Ryan hugged Manic and Manic hugged back. All of them are tearing slowly, even Aleena up in the tree. Ryan stood up.

"Bye, guys," Ryan said.

Just before Ryan turned, he noticed the five furries stand at the position of attention. Then, one by one, they brought their arms up and stopped their flat palms just short of their eyebrows. They were saluting Ryan, even though Ryan was not an officer. Ryan grinned, stood at attention, and saluted back. After a few seconds, he dropped his salute and so did the furries.

Ryan slowly turned his attention away from the furries, making it his last time he ever saw them. He faced the portal and stepped through the portal slowly. He placed his right boot through the portal and stepped on a hard unseen surface on the other side. Then he went face first in the blue Dimensional Matter Displacer with his left leg training behind him. The furries saw his left boot disappear behind him and, soon, the portal disappeared from behind him leaving Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Cyrus, and Trevor alone.

"Say, we'll hop you a ride back home, guys," Cyrus offered pointing his thumb at the van.

"No, that's alright, we'll walk home," Sonic said still staring at the spot where the portal disappeared. Sonia and Manic seemed to be staring off as well.

Cyrus and Trevor shrugged, but understood how Ryan met to the hedgehogs. The lion and mouse turned and entered in the Sonic Underground van. Soon, they dove away, leaving the triplet hedgehogs all alone.

"I sure am going to miss that guy," Sonic said finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah, he sure was a cool dude," Manic said.

"I wonder if we'll ever see him again," Sonia wondered. "I mean, Cyrus can make absolutely anything."

"Yeah, I mean, if Robotnik could find a way to teleport to other worlds, then maybe we can find a way, too," Manic said all excited.

"Well, bro, we'll never know until we get started, man," Sonic said turning to his twin brother. "I'd race you, but I know you'll never keep up."

"Sonic," Sonia shouted placing her hand on her hips. "Despite the harsh training Ryan taught us to be, you're still the same old Sonic we always knew."

"So?" Sonic shrugged. "We may be Green Berets, but we're still the same. Come on, sibs."

Sonic then grabbed Sonia's wrist and Manic's wrist. He revved up his feet, collecting momentum, and zipped down the forest, taking his siblings with him. As soon as they were gone, Aleena sat alone on the tree and giggled at the conversation they had. She then looked up at the sky.

"I guess this is not good bye after all, Ryan," Aleena said to the sky. "Thank you so much. Even with the help of an unexpected ally, my children are one step closer to their battle against Robotnik. With their new-found knowledge, they will one day win." With that, Aleena jumped down from the tree and started walking down the forest.

**11**

_FOUR YEARS AGO_

Ryan Michael Perreault stood in the position of attention wearing his Army greens uniform. Standing on both sides of him are his fellow ten recruits. He remembered starting out with 80, which was reduced down to nine by the end of Selection, and by the end only three (Davis, Perreault, and Tanor) of the original nine passed, along with all five roll-ins and the two officers.

The ten men stood on a large platform wearing their greens but were asked not to wear their covers. A cover is a military term for a hat. Standing next to them is Colonel Samuel Moss as he stood on a podium overlooking an auditorium full of family members. Ryan looked in the audience and saw his mother, father, and sister near the front row. They waved at him, but could not move in the position of attention, so he smiled and winked at them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention," Moss announced over the speakers. The auditorium quieted down. Then a projector shown slide shows of Special Forces soldiers in training and combat, most of which were of the ten that passed. "My name is Colonel Samuel Moss. I have been a Special Forces member for over 20 years. I've seen combat in Beirut, Desert Storm, and Kosovo. These ten men that you see before you worked so hard to get to this point. They worked so hard to become a member of the United States Army Special Forces."

The audience cheered, praising their children.

"Some of you are wondering what is United States Army Special Forces," Moss spoke in the podium's microphone, "Well, we were organized as a training unit in 1952 to help train foreign forces to those who cannot help themselves. During Vietnam, we moved on as a Special Operations Force and used our men into combat. Today, we are still instructors to help indigenous forces, but, as we have evolved since 1952, we have grown tougher, stronger, better. That is what I've seen in these men. Let's begin with what these ten men went through to get to this point."

The slideshows present to the family members shown of photographs of Selection. Some of them have Ryan on it. Everyone cringed seeing the hard work everyone went through.

"This is called Assessment and Selection," Moss announced. "It's a 24-day course that tested their abilities in everything. There were 80 recruits in this course and only nine of them passed." Then there was a photograph of the nine recruits right after Selection. "These nine attended the Qualification Course which was 49 weeks. The went through the Individual Phase, the MOS Phase, the Collective Phase, the Language Phase, and finished off with S.E.R.E., Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape. In the end, only three of the original nine have passed this course. We also have five roll-ins and two officers. Let's give them a round of applause."

The audience applauded them.

"Good," Moss said. "Now, for the final part. Civilians call these men Green Berets. However, that is what they are missing. Sergeant Majors, bring them forward."

Then, ten Sergeant Majors walked on the auditorium stage with ten boxed in their hands. As the Sergeants moved, the speakers played Barry Sadler's _Ballad of the Green Berets_. One by one, the Sergeants opened up their boxes and pulled out a green beret from them. They placed the boxes on the ground and walked around behind the ten recruits. As the song played, the Sergeants slid the green berets on the recruits' heads. It was at that exact moment when the recruits turned into Special Forces Operators, or Green Berets.

Ryan's parents stared up and saw the green beret placed on Ryan's head, flashing a black U-shaped flash patch, with the Special Forces crest pinned on it, meaning that he was part of the 5th Special Forces Group. In fact, all of them are in the 5th SFG. Lieutenant Falcon's beret flash patch has a silver bar on it, which is his rank, a First Lieutenant. Warrant Officer Loren's patch had a white bar with a black square in it, which is the Warrant Officer rank. The rest of the berets had the Special Forces crest on them. The song finishes as the Sergeants turned and walked off the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present these young Green Berets. First Lieutenant Jonathan Falcon, Warrant Officer Dick Loren, Sergeant Andrew Adams, Sergeant Greg Beta, Staff Sergeant Robert Davis, Sergeant Peter Matthews, Corporal William Nichols, Corporal Ryan Perreault, Staff Sergeant Max Samsung, and Corporal Stephen Tanor," Colonel Moss announced to everyone. Everyone clapped. "As the Colonel, I will only give one last order. Fall out and enjoy the rest of the day outside. Hoo-ah!"

"Hoo-ah!" the Green Berets shouted.

**12**

That afternoon, there was a large barbecue dinner just outside of Fort Bragg. The Sergeants cooked up various meaty barbecue dinners of various types to the ten Green Berets still in uniform and wearing their green berets on their heads, untouched since the Sergeants placed them on their heads.

Ryan's mother and father sat at a table with some other parents. In middle of their conversation, Ryan approached them still in his uniform.

"Hi mom, hi dad," Ryan said to them. His mother turned and faced Ryan. Ryan's father, who looks like a clone of Ryan except with black hair and tanner skinned, turned and faced Ryan as well. "I'm honored you guys came. I'm even surprised Jacqui came along, too." Jacqui was Ryan's little sister.

"Well, it was the leased we could do," Ryan's father said. "You were gone for 60 weeks."

"What was it like when I was gone?" Ryan asked.

"Lonely, everyone back home missed you," his mother said.

"Are you at leased proud of my accomplishments?" Ryan asked. With that, his mother stood up and hugged him. "I'll take that as a yes." Ryan chuckled. His mom released.

"What happens next?" his mom asked.

"Well, all of us will be assigned to an Oh-Dee-Aae, that's an Operational Detachment Alpha. Or you can call us an A-Team," Ryan explained. "As you can see on my beret patch, I'm part of the Fifth Special Forces Group, which have an area of responsibility in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa. We'll be stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky when not in conflict. But I will still have Live Environment Training which will last for 18 months before I actually see my first combat."

"More training?" Ryan's dad asked.

"Well, training never stops," Ryan explained. "Training to get the official Green Beret stopped for me, but continuous combat training never stops. In fact, that is all my team is going to do for a long while. For as long as I am in Special Forces, I will keep training and training and training. By the time we actually get to see combat, team tactics and movement become second nature to us."

"So, you'll be leaving again?" Ryan's mom asked. With that, Ryan chuckled.

"No, I'm coming home, mom," Ryan told her. "I'll be home for the next 30 days and then I'll be shipped to Fort Campbell where I will then go off to Live Environment Training with my ODA. And we will be overseas for as long as I need to."

All of a sudden, Davis came running up to Ryan.

"Hey, Ryan, the team is missing you at the table," Davis said chuckling.

"Okay, Robert," Ryan replied. "These are my parents."

"Nice to meet you, Mister and Misses Perreault," Davis said to them. "Your son refused to quit, no matter they did to us. He was a team player and he will make an outstanding operator someday."

"Oh, that's good to hear," his mom said sounding not so sure.

"Well, the team is missing me," Ryan chuckled. "See you guys in a few, mom and dad." With that, Ryan and Davis ran back to the table with the rest of the Green Berets. Joining them in the table are Master Sergeants Fox and Stevens, whom have been assigned to their future A-Team, known as ODA 377.

Ryan's mom and dad sat back down at their table and could not help but wonder that their son has grown up and become a man.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	16. Home

**CHAPTER 16**

**Home**

**1**

Ryan was flying through a whole cloudy area of blue and white. As he traveled through, he slowly closed his eyes, and then he was hit by a terrible fear!

**2**

Ryan snapped his eyes open like he just woke up from a nightmare. His mouth was hanging open and his gums and lips were bone-dry. He looked around and saw he was lying on the carpeted floor of his living room. The clothes he wore were the same as he remembered; his American digital-patterned army camouflage pants, black T-shirt, tan Bates boots, and his two holsters with his sidearm and knife.

Slowly, Ryan sat up and noticed the plasma television was still on, displaying the DVD Player's logo saying the tray is empty. He stood up and pressed the button on the television shutting it off, leaving a hint of the DVD logo burnt into the screen which will fade away soon. He looked around and noticed he was no longer in a cartoon world. Ryan was no longer on Mobius. He was back in good old Massachusetts. He must have fallen asleep watching television.

Ryan got up and started walking around the house. He stepped in the hallway and saw the two bedroom doors a crack open. He peeked in one of them to see an empty bed, and then he peeked in the other to see another empty bed. Quickly, he ran to the living room again and looked out the large window with the driveway in view. The driveway was empty, no cars in sight. He knew his motorcycle was in the garage. The house was empty all to himself.

With a sigh of relief, Ryan plopped himself down on the couch and placed his hands behind his back. He licked his mouth to get the saliva going again and all he could think about was that he had one bizarre nightmare. However, at the same time, he enjoyed it. Then, he suddenly realized something.

"Oh, shit! Roxy!" Ryan cried out to himself.

Ryan snapped off of the couch and ran through the kitchen where the door leads to the basement. The basement was Ryan's bedroom. Ryan quickly dashed himself down the short flight of stairs and jumped off the last few and looked around.

"Roxy?!" Ryan called out.

Immediately, Ryan saw movement from his small portable makeshift closet. A little spunky Shih Tzu dog jumped out of the closet and rushed to Ryan. It was Roxy and she was alright. She ran to Ryan, not in a glad-to-see-you mannor, but more like I-was-so-scared mannor. Ryan bent over and scooped the little dog in his arms and Roxy licked his face constantly like she always does.

"Oh, Roxy, I'm glad to see you," Ryan said sadly. "I was so scared. It felt like I was in a different world. This may sound stupid, but I thought Sleet and Dingo were in my house and, without knowing, I thought they grabbed you or something."

Roxy did not reply. She just looked up at Ryan with a panting tongue and a smile on her face. Ryan believed that look on Roxy's face was all he needed to feel better.

"Hey, want to watch TV with me?" Ryan asked her. Roxy gave Ryan a lick on the face under the chin. He chuckled and carried her off back to the living room.

Ryan sat back on the couch with Roxy in his arms. He grabbed the remote and turned on the plasma television. Then he noticed that the 'Sonic Underground' DVD was still in the open DVD tray. He used the remote to close the tray and waited for the program to start up. After a few seconds, he decided to play the episode 'Bug!' which was one of Ryan's favorites. In addition, this episode was the very first episode Ryan saw. In fact, he still has the video tape somewhere where he recorded the episode for the first time. The opening theme played.

"Triplet's born, the throne awaits, a seer warns of a deadly fate, give up your children, separate, bide your time, lie in wait," the announcer sung. "Sonic Underground! (Sonic) Sonic Underground! (Sonic) They made a vow their mother will be found!" Ryan sung along with it.

He watched as he saw each of the triplets as children, and turning into adults and blowing up a SWAT bot. He then saw the faces of Robotnik, Sleet, and Dingo on the screen right before a dissolve of a large Sonic Underground concert.

"I long for my children but I have to wait, to act too soon could seal their fait," Aleena sung.

The final notes were sung and it displayed the episode title with a picture of the triplets standing side-by-side. Sonic ran across the screen with the word, 'Bug!' trailing behind him. The screen then showed Manic hover boarding through the sky.

Halfway through the episode, Ryan stopped paused the DVD and set Roxy down. He walked to the bathroom to freshen up. As he stepped in the bathroom, he looked in the mirror and caught a strange shock! His lip was bleeding like he was punched in the face, like how he got into the final fight with Sleet. He turned on the water and caught another shock. There was a smudged up 7-didget number written on the palm of his hand! He then finally noticed that some of his clothes are heavily wrinkled.

Ryan had to make sure what he had was a dream. He quickly whipped out his Heckler and Koch USP sidearm and removed the magazine. It was empty. He then slowly pulled back on the gun's slide and noticed there was one bullet still in the barrel. To top it off, Ryan sniffed his gun and smelt that it has been recently fired.

This was strange to Ryan. He snapped out of the bathroom and ran back in the living room, only to catch another shock. Ryan's olive-drab bag was laying right next to the couch. He holstered his gun and ran to it. After opening his bag, he realized his 'Endurance Techniques' book was missing, and everything else in the bag was there, such as handcuffs, his green beret, everything.

"Oh my God," Ryan whispered to himself. Roxy walked over the couch and stared at Ryan. Ryan looked at her and saw the confused expression on her face, asking if Ryan was okay.

Suddenly, Ryan remembered something. He was too nervous but he has to find out. Slowly, he reached in his pocket and felt something in there. He carefully pulled it out and it turned out to be a zip-drive disk. However, the disk did not even look real, it looked like a cartoon but felt real. If he closed his eyes and felt it, he would have mistaken it for a real disk. Printed on the disk in black marker said 'DMD' on the label.

Ryan thought to himself if he was really there or not. Soon, he realized that he did not care if it was real or not. He remembered the best parts, such as meeting the triplets and their mother. His favorite cartoon show seemed like reality to him.

Ryan then sat on the couch happily watching his episode. Roxy jumped in his lap.

"Hi, Rocker-roni," Ryan said to Roxy. He petted her happily knowing he was back home. Most of the time, he confessed himself that it was all real, and it made him happier all the time.

"Sonic, Sonia, Manic," Ryan began to say, "Thank you for a wonderful time on Mobius." Then Ryan slowly fell asleep on the couch with Roxy on his chest. She soon fell asleep on him too.

**3**

Later that day, Ryan was in his backyard with the butterfly garden. Slowly, he got on his knees in front of the chocolate lilacs with a spade in his hand. He dug a small hole in between a space between the flowers about six inches deep and the diameter of a compact disk.

Once he was done, Ryan stuck the blade of the shovel in the grass next to him. He them pulled out a small Ziploc plastic bag out of his pocket. Within the airtight bag was the Dimensional Matter Displacer disk. His computer did not have the hardware to operate such a disk, but he did sketch the disk's design earlier before coming out to his backyard. Ryan grinned as he slowly slid the disk in its little grave. The plastic bag would protect it from damage due to the dirt and the weather.

"Someday, I'll give it another try," Ryan said to himself as a tear dripped out of his eye.

Ryan was now completely convinced that his adventure really happened, but the house's calendars shown that the day was still the same since he was taken away. Slowly, he used his palm to sweep the dirt over the disk, burying it in its little grave. As soon as he filled the hole with dirt and covered it with the mulch, he looked up to the sky, somewhere Mobius was out there.

"But not yet," Ryan said to himself. "Not yet."

**TO BE CONTINUED...**


	17. Epilogue: 20 Years Later

**EPILOGUE**

**20 Years Later**

Over eighty recruits sat on bleachers, each wearing the American Army's ACU Digital combat battle dress uniforms. Most of them are young Corporals and Sergeants. They sat in the bleachers within the large empty field of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. They chatted amongst themselves before an officer approached them.

"Eyes on me!" the officer shouted.

This officer was the 'nameless-Captain' from the Assessment and Selection class twenty years ago, only he was now a 'nameless-Colonel.' Just like he always did, he wore thick Oakley sunglasses and his nametapes here removed. The recruits turned and stared at the officer before them. Immediately, they all realized how scary this man was. Behind this Colonel were several Sergeants wearing the same uniform.

"Welcome, gentlemen, to the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course," the Colonel-with-no-name announced. "You men are the unlucky chosen ones to participate in this course. I don't care how much you have prepared yourself over many years, This program has a failure ratio of well over 80 percent. It would not surprise me if none of make it!" the recruits showed looks of fear upon hearing that comment. "Now for the bad news. In the next 24 days, you will be challenged beyond human limits mentally and physically. We will break you down and make you cry. If you cannot handle this program and you think this place is a joke, you are excuse to leave with your head down. Who's it going to be?"

None of the recruits flinched. Either they really took this course seriously or they were too afraid to move.

"I didn't think so," the Colonel said. "Now, I would tell you guys the harsh concepts of this course, but that would make me feel like a bad guys, wouldn't it." He then turned to one of the Sergeants behind him. "Sergeant Major, you explain it to them."

The Colonel took a step back and one of the Sergeants in the line behind him stepped forward in the Colonel's place. This tall man wore no sunglasses because the looks in his eyes can strike fear. On his center tab was his rank; three upside-down V chevrons and four U chevrons underneath it. This ranked him as a Sergeant Major. Unlike the Colonel, he still bore his name tape. Clearly seen on his name tape said: 'PERREAULT'.

This tall bulky man was Ryan Perreault. He was over 45 year's old, but still shown looks of youth on his face. His body, however, shown a non-stop routine workout, which also shown fear to the smaller recruits.

"Gentlemen, my name is Sergeant Major Ryan Michael Perreault," Ryan announced in a deeper booming voice. "I have been a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant for over 20 years, and I spend the last five years as a Special Forces Operations Sergeant. However, I highly doubt I see any of you low-lives being able to reach my accomplishments! If you want to be here, you got to move as a team, think extensively, and run at high speeds beyond human limits because I don't see any of you as even humans!"

Suddenly, one of the recruits in the front row whispered quietly to another recruit. Unfortunately, Ryan heard the whispering.

"You!" the 45-year-old Ryan shouted, pointing at the whispering recruit. Ryan carefully, from where he stood, was able to read the recruit's nametape. "How is that pronounced? Poo-root? Pah-rhet?"

"Perot, Sergeant Major," the recruit said when he stood up at attention. His name sounded exactly like the political figure Ross Perot.

"Okay, recruit Parrot," Ryan mocked, "I figured you like to talk, so why don't you tell everyone what you just said."

"Uh, well," Perot started to say nervously, in fear of getting in trouble. "I was telling Recruit Stanson, 'does this guy expect me to run like Sonic the Hedgehog?', Sergeant Major."

All of a sudden, Ryan froze hearing what the recruit said. That was a name Ryan has not heard in a long time. In seconds, he remembered his adventure with the Sonic Underground 20 years ago. It was a long time ago, but he remembered every detail nearly perfectly. Ryan could not help but crack a grin, remembering his times with the triplets. In fact, he remembered, before moving out, he dug up the 'DMD' labeled disk and brought it with him to his new home in North Carolina.

Quickly, Ryan snapped out of it and stared back at the recruit. He shifted his eyes over the rest of the recruits in the bleachers and saw them all staring at him.

"Well, to answer your question, Poo-riot, no one can run as fast as Sonic," Ryan told him, remembering being carried at high speed on Sonic's back. "But I'm willing to give you an exception. You'll pass if you can break the sound-barrier, now sit down and shut up with the whispering. That goes for the rest of you! Colonel, they're yours."

Ryan did an about face and walked back to the group of Sergeants behind the line. The nameless-Colonel walked up to the group again. As the Colonel continued his address, another one of the Sergeant Majors leaned over to Ryan. It was Robert Davis, and he was currently the team's Intelligence Sergeant.

"You okay, Ryan?" Davis asked. "You were out of it for a few seconds."

"I'm okay, I was just recalling some memories," Ryan replied back.

"It's okay, Ryan, you knew very well it happened, just remember the good parts Sonic gave you," Davis whispered back to him. "One day, you may met Sonic again and he will thank you for what you gave him. Only time will tell."

Ryan could not help but smile. In every way, Robert Davis was right. Ryan remembered the best parts of his adventure. He sometimes keep on catching himself checking the Internet if a new season of the show will come back. During most of his free time, he was tried to find ways to get the Dimensional Matter Displacer to work with the technology they have on Earth. Maybe someday, it will work. Until then, Ryan kept on asking himself the same questions. Will he be going back? Will he meet Sonic the Hedgehog again? Even if it is not him, he hopes someone else will get the honor of meeting Sonic and go into the cartoon world and look on the positives of their adventures. He knows that Sonic really does exist, and he constantly asks himself the same question, not if Sonic will recognize him, but does Sonic miss him? Only time will tell. Just like his buddy Davis always said, only time will tell. The question is when.

**THE END**


End file.
